After wrestling in high school and college, Zinkin started the first elementary school wrestling team in Fresno and served as one of its first coaches. All three of his sons became high school and collegiate freestyle All-Americans. Zinkin began and still sponsors California’s toughest high school tournament known as the Zinkin Classic, and in 2017 he began sponsoring “Battle on the Midway” in San Diego, an event on the deck of an aircraft carrier that has become a wresting audience favorite.