Armwrestling History
The beginning of Armwrestling
1952-2007
This year will be our 55th year
of the organized sport.
Bill Soberanes and Dave Devoto
Motto:
"Raw Strength and Courage"
Current Directors:
Dave Devoto
John Burgeson
The matches began In Gilardi's saloon In Petaluma, CA. in 1952. Bill Soberanes, a young
journalist was the founder of the organized sport. He was the Inspiration for the annual
Petaluma, then Northern California and then the California armwrestling championship. In
1962 Bill and Dave Devoto got together to form the World's Wristwrestling Championship,
Inc. and take it to one of Petaluma's largest auditoriums. The event was tremendously
successful and exciting things began to happen.
In 1968 Charles Schultz did 11 comic strips where snoopy was coming to Petaluma to win
the World's Wristwrestling Championship. Unfortunately In the final strip he was
eliminated because the official armwrestling rules stated you must lock your thumbs with
the opposing competitor. Snoopy had no thumb. Drats. These comic strips were done in
dozens of different languages and distributed through out the world.
In 1969 Dave Devoto contracted with the American Broadcasting Corporation and the
World's Wristwrestling Championship began a wonderful l6 year relationship with ABC's Wide
World of Sports. Armwrestling came of age.
A story in Playboy magazine substantiated the fact that our televised
event was the highest rated show in the young history of Wide World of Sports. Most
of the competitors in the sport today first became aware of Armwrestling through
ABC's
productions of the Wide World of Sports World's Wristwrestling Championship. The
televised championships ran from 1969 through 1984. We love Wide World of Sports.
In October 1995 the event was filmed by the Learning Channel and shown
four times throughout the World. The World's Wristwrestling - Armwrestling
Championship has
always been held the second Saturday in October in Petaluma, California.
On October 12, 1996 the event was filmed by NBC's World News Today and shown
throughout the World on October 13, 1996.
On October 14, 2000 the event was filmed by CBS and shown on the 16th
on the Bryant Gumbel show. Part of the event was also shown on the
Evening Magazine weeks later.
ArmSports, armwrestling and wristwrestling are all the same sport using the same type
table with pegs.
We have been consultants on movies and television videos regarding ArmSports,
Armwrestling and Wristwrestling and are making our facilities available to all Armsports
competitors and organizers. Our goal is to provide information and organization to all who
have interest in our sport.
