The growing popularity of roller skating in the United States led to the formation of organized multi-day endurance races for cash prizes as early as the mid-1880s.^[1][2][3] Speed and endurance races continued to be held on both flat and banked tracks in the century's first three decades^[4] and spectators enjoyed the spills and falls of the skaters.^[5][6] The term "roller derby" was used to refer to such races by 1922.^[7]

There are a multitude of roller derby associations in the United States.

• Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA)^[8] – 68 member leagues as of September 2019^[9]
• Modern Athletic Derby Endeavor (MADE)^[10] – 8 member leagues^{[citation needed]}
• Junior Roller Derby Association (JRDA)^[11] – 118 junior roller derby member leagues as of Dec 2017^{[citation needed]}
• Roller Derby Coalition of Leagues (RDCL) – 8 banked track member leagues as of September 2019^[12]
• USA Roller Sports (USARS)^[13] – 57 member leagues (combines all age and gender divisions)^[14]
• Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA)^[15] – 460 member leagues as of September 2019^[16]

Due to historical accident,^{[according to whom?]} the term "league" in modern roller derby means something more akin to a football club than to a traditional sports league thus, there are a very large number of leagues sometimes even including two or more based in a single city.

• Roller derby
• List of roller derby associations
• List of roller derby leagues
• History of roller derby