Before the Gay Games, long before internet email and web sites, gay and straight grapplers fed their hunger for matches on the dark fringes of urban life.

Many wrestlers connected with each other through advertisements in magazines.

Before Gay Games I, the "Challenge in '82" for wrestling had already been tackled by wrestling organizers from California. Most notable were Don Jung , coach of Golden Gate Wrestling (GGWC), and Pete Runyon of Southern California Wrestling (SCWC). The evolution from the seedy and dangerous closets of so many legitimate gay wrestlers, to the downright inspiring achievements of what became Gay Games I, had its roots back in the late 1970s in Southern California.

SCWC had emerged as the first legitimate club in the late '70s, flourishing under businessman Runyon and a very talented, competent coach, Mike Rio, who was a part-time wrestling coach in Orange County, a Los Angeles Police Department officer, and a macho hunky Hollywood extra.

SCWC dominated Gay Games I and II. SCWC's efforts were enhanced in 1981 when Tom Waddell asked Jung to create a legitimate freestyle club in San Francisco, separate from the more playful and unstructured San Francisco Wrestling Club. This became the GGWC, and both clubs scheduled many inter-club competitions every year.

Jung was already well known and respected in California. A state champ at both Vallejo High School and Chabot Junior College, he became the coach at Mission High School in San Francisco. He and his good friend and fellow coach at Riordan High School, Steve Swanson, who helped out behind the scenes, built the GGWC in time for Gay Games I, and enlisted the proactive support of many California coaches and officials.

The YMCA teams in New York and other cities also were fertile ground for meeting other wrestlers. Bars featured wrestling events in which the winners were given cash prizes. Eventually a very loose underground of legitimate wrestlers formed and endured.