[4] Fritz Von Goering was born as Harold Ray Jennings in San Francisco, California, on March 31, 1930,[5][6] to an Irish-American family.

[3] After finishing high school, Gabor enlisted in the California National Guard, later serving in the United States Air Force.

[5] Gabor became interested in combat fighting at a young age when his uncle brought him to boxing matches and he grew to admire profession wrestlers such as Lou Thesz and Bobby Managoff, both of whom he would wrestle with later in his career.

[5] Gabor started wrestling in aftermath of World War II, when it was common for heels (villains) to be portrayed as being from countries in the Axis Powers.

Despite not being of German descent, he was billed as "Fritz von Ulm", until a promoter in Minnesota altered it to include the Goering surname, which was based on Nazi Party figure Hermann Göring.