Jerry Seltzer

Jerry Seltzer inherited operational leadership of Roller Derby from his father Leo Seltzer in 1958, at the age of twenty-six. Over the next fifteen years, he led the sport through arguably its most visible commercial period — coast-to-coast television syndication, the rise of the San Francisco Bay Bombers as a flagship team, and a national star system that included Charlie O'Connell, Joan Weston, Ann Calvello, Mike Gammon, and Ronnie Robinson.

Jerry Seltzer closed the original Roller Derby in 1973. He remained an active commentator on, and historian of, the sport for the next four decades, frequently consulting on documentaries and revival projects. He was inducted into the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame as an executive in 2005, alongside his father.

He died in July 2019. His passing was noted in The New York Times and across the roller derby community as the end of an era of direct second-generation institutional memory.