Jerry Seltzer (born June 3, 1932) was the second and final owner of the original Roller Derby league. The league and the sport of roller derby were created in 1935 in Chicago by Leo Seltzer, Jerry's father.

In 1958, Jerry moved the operation to the San Francisco Bay Area and established the most fabled team in the history of the sport, the longtime champion San Francisco Bay Bombers. Stars included Charlie O'Connell, Joanie Weston, and Ann Calvello.

In 1970, Seltzer attempted to buy the struggling Oakland Seals hockey team. Although he put in a better offer and had a more detailed plan for reviving the franchise, a majority of National Hockey League owners (the "old establishment", not the younger owners and newer teams) voted to sell the team to Charlie O. Finley, the flamboyant owner of baseball's Oakland A's.^[1]

In the 1970s, Jerry Seltzer founded BASS Tickets, a San Francisco Bay Area concert ticket service. Later, he was a vice president with Ticketmaster.

Jerry said about roller derby that his father, Leo Seltzer, had always wanted roller derby to be a legitimate sport and to be in the Olympics. Jerry said that with the recent grassroots movement of roller derby, including the WFTDA, he thinks roller derby can now be an Olympic sport^[2].

[edit] References

This biographical article related to American sports is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e