Born in South Carolina in 1939, Donald Booth Sr. spent his school years in Johnston, South Carolina, graduating in 1957 as valedictorian of his class. 

After earning his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of South Carolina, he began to work for NASA at the Langley Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia in the computer division in 1962. Booth met his future wife at Langley in 1963 and retired in 2003. 

Booth began his involvement with wrestling when his six-year-old son, Donald, came home with a wrestling form. Donald began wrestling in 1980 and became a member of the York Youth Wrestling team in 1981. The York Youth team was a part of the James-York Youth League, which was comprised of teams from York County and Newport News. 

Don became the match maker and team manager for York Youth wrestling teams in 1982, and later became commissioner of the James-York Youth League. As commissioner he moved the tournament to York High School and implemented the use of computers in 1983 for the league and its teams. 

During the 1984 tournament, a match had to be determined by the flip of a coin, according to the rule book. The referee and Booth felt that this was a poor solution, so the following year Don came up with the sudden victory tiebreaker. 

Because it had outgrown the high school gym, the tournament moved to the Hampton Coliseum in 1993 and two years later Booth left the league in 1995. Booth also assisted with the York Classic tournament from 1984-94 as well as regional tournaments for York High School. 

Booth was a member of the Peninsula Wrestling Association for many years, serving as vice president, president and treasurer while being a backbone of the Virginia Duals Wrestling Tournament for many years.