“BACK IN THE DAY...” Movement grew underground efore the Gay Games, very talented, competent Blong before the coach, Mike Rio, who internet and email, gay was a part-time wrestling and straight grapplers fed coach in Orange County, their hunger for matches a Los Angeles Police on the dark fringes of Department officer, and a urban life. macho hunky Hollywood The most effective extra. modus operandi for SCWC dominated closeted gay wrestlers Gay Games I and II. to meet was through Wrestlers often met through SCWC’s efforts were secretive word-of-mouth magazine ads. enhanced in 1981 when referrals and mailing lists Tom Waddell asked Jung published by various pre-cyber clubs, to create a legitimate freestyle club in such as the New York Wrestling Club, San Francisco, separate from the more Gillespie’s List and New Orleans Wres- playful and unstructured San Fran- tling Club. The forerunners of today’s cy- cisco Wrestling Club. This became the ber contact lists and social media, they GGWC, and both clubs scheduled many provided the same functions: communi- inter-club competitions every year. cation and contact. Some Jung was al- of it was good, some of it ready well known was bad: you got in touch “Inter fæces et and respected and took your chances. urinam nascimur” in California. Before Gay Games I, – St. Augustine A state champ the “Challenge in ‘82” at both Vallejo for wrestling had already been tackled High School and Chabot Junior College, by wrestling organizers from California. he became the coach at Mission High Most notable were Don Jung, coach School in San Francisco. He and his of Golden Gate Wrestling (GGWC), good friend and fellow coach at Riordan and Pete Runyon of Southern Califor- High School, Steve Swanson, built the nia Wrestling (SCWC). The evolution GGWC in time for Gay Games I, and from the seedy and dangerous closets enlisted the proactive support of many of so many legitimate gay wrestlers, to California coaches and officials. the downright inspiring achievements The YMCA teams in New York and of what became Gay Games I, had its other cities also were fertile ground for roots back in the late 1970s in Southern meeting other wrestlers. Bars featured California. wrestling events in which the winners SCWC had emerged as the first were given cash prizes. Eventually a very legitimate club in the late ‘70s, flourish- loose underground of legitimate wrestlers ing under businessman Runyon and a formed and endured. GAY GAMES I 1982 built mainstream ties he 1982 Gay Games wrestling tournament se- Tcured much coveted California USA Wrestling (CA-USAW) sanctioning as a legitimate competi- tion without much fanfare. In fact, wrestling is the only sport to have received official sanctioning for every Gay Games. The sanctioning brought medical and liability coverage as well as experienced, competent of- ficials. But it implied a connection to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), which 19 days before the Opening Ceremonies had won a court injunction yanking the word “Olympic” from the original title of “Gay Olympic Games.” Top officials were enlisted, most notably Andy Foley, high school coach of one of the Gay Games current wrestlers, Calvin Malone. Robin Chambers was a well known and respected Nor- Cal wrestling tournament pairing official who proved to be a phenomenal asset. An inspiring opening address was delivered by Allen Abraham, former coach at New York’s Columbia University, Athletic Director at the time of San Francisco State, and now Dean of Students at SFSU. Drawing a parallel with the anti-Semitic prejudice he had endured at the New York Athletic Club decades earlier to the challenges of acceptance facing the gay wrestlers of 1982, he not only instilled a sense of pride, but issued a challenge to the wrestlers to stay involved for change. The speech moved the audience to tears as the wrestlers realized they were about to make history. Top photo: Steve Swanson of San Fran- cisco (in red) wrestles at 180 lbs. An English teacher and coach at Riordan High School, he died in 1989. ––– Left photo: Peter Go- mez of San Francisco (in blue) at 136.5 lbs. blocks Larry Blakeley, who moved from Ten- nessee to Los Angeles after the Games. Both were dead by 1992. GAY GAMES II Clubs emerge as AIDS strikes he success of the wrestling tourna- cult/club-coded T-shirts. Gay wrestlers Tment in Gay Games I created a wave used these to identify each other when of energy and change throughout the attending mainstream wrestling events underground wrestling culture. such as the Olympic Trials or the NCAA The hunger to con- championships. tinue the personal and But the euphoria athletic contacts made was tragically short at the first Gay Games lived. In the gay-ghetto led to the emergence of cities of San Francisco, legitimate wrestling clubs Los Angeles and New in other cities before York, AIDS was cutting Gay Games II. The New a deadly swath through York Knights, the Boston the ranks of the emerging Stranglers and the Phila- sports leadership. Within delphia Spartans were a few years of Gay just three of the many Games II, GGWC coach new clubs that sprang up Don Jung, SCWC coach modeled after Southern Mike Rio, Gay Games California and Golden founder Tom Waddell Gate. Scott Velliquette of Southern and hundreds of other While the gay California Wrestling triumphed leaders were dead. freestyle wrestling com- for gold in 1986. Ignorance, fear and munity was organizing, hopelessness became university folkstyle programs were being the hallmarks of once thriving clubs. dropped by hundreds of schools. Straight Don Jung committed suicide the day wrestlers displaced by the Title IX- after his Gay Games II matches. Mike blamed cuts often found their way to the Rio and Tom Waddell followed a few new “gay” clubs, which then were able years later. Many of the straight wrestlers to draw enough participation for regular would no longer practice with the clubs. practices. The close personal day-to- Even the clubs’ participation and volun- day contacts that developed destroyed teer efforts in local tournaments were no stereotypes. Wrestling’s institutional ho- longer sought or appreciated. The years mophobic fears, fed by ignorance, were from 1985 to 1989 were the darkest pe- dealt a mortal blow. riod as many gay wrestlers disappeared Every Gay Games has had 10 to 20 off the face of the earth virtually without percent heterosexual participation. Gay a trace. Games wrestling has always been about But the seeds for revival had already acceptance, not sexuality. been thrown, and Gay Games III would A sense of pride and camaraderie prove to be a rallying point for the manifested itself in a lot of very definitive future. EARLY HEROES Founders set tone for future he success and growth of gay wrestling Ttoday is the legacy of the hard work of heroes from the past. Don Jung brought credibility to Gay Games wrestling, leveraging his mainstream reputation and skills as a competitor and coach to found Golden Gate Wrestling within the Bay Area Wrestling Association and California-USA Wrestling. Jung brought on board many other very influential people who signed on to our credibility as early as 1982. One of them was Allen Abraham San Francisco State; another was Steve Swanson. Swanson was an Archbishop Riordan High School wrestling coach and teacher in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who had to support the games and compete under an alias. Don Jung formed Golden Gate Wres- tling Club in 1981 at the request of Gay Pete Runyon’s financial management of Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell. After the first gay club in the late ‘70s, Southern coaching the team through the first two California Wrestling Club (SCWC), was the Gay Games and medalling in both, com- prototype of economic resourcefulness. Their plications with AIDS drove him to suicide wrestlers carefully balanced the integrity of before Gay Games II ended. the sport with crowd appeal in order to have fun – and raise money. Gary France’s term as coach and president of GGWC (1988-1994) brought about the establishment of the GGWC CA-USAW charter and the institutionalized program within the San Francisco Parks & Recreation offerings. France’s persistence with basketball’s Tony Jasinski in finally earning the acceptance of gay sports at the Eu- reka Valley Rec Center in the Castro (now the Mark Bingham Gym), was a political milestone. That relationship survives today, and is the key to the success of SCWC, San Diego Bulldog Wrestling and GGWC. Kathleen McAdams and Rochelle Robinson were both California women’s free- style wrestling champions who came out of the GGWC program to compete in Gay Games. The ultimate achievement was Rochelle’s performance as an out lesbian at the USAW freestyle nationals in Orlando in 1998. Gene Dermody is the only wrestler to have competed in every Gay Games. The wrestling legacy continues to grow. Author Jim Provenzano’s experience wrestling in the 1998 Gay Games inspired him to write the first coming-of-age wres- tling novel, “PINS,” adapted into a play and featured during the 2006 Gay Games. GAY GAMES III The Games go on the road he Gay Games gained true interna- Toronto, Montreal, London, Frankfurt Ttional stature in 1990 in Vancouver, and Amsterdam. the first time they were held outside the In 1992 IWA was incorporated as a United States under the newly re-formed 501c4 California non-profit organization, Federation of Gay Games. but its application to join the FGG did The turnout not meet Federa- from California’s tion requirements. decimated and Instead, Golden demoralized wres- Gate was granted tling clubs was its a position as a lowest participa- temporary stand- tion ever in terms in until IWA of percentage of could meet the entrants.