James Raschke was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1940. Raschke played football and wrestled at Omaha North high school, where he won the 1958 Nebraska state heavyweight wrestling championship as a high school senior. He was widely recruited by several colleges before settling on the University of Nebraska. Raschke was a two-time All-American wrestler capturing the Big Eight conference heavyweight championship in 1962. He won the bronze medal at the 1963 World games becoming only the second American wrestler to place in Greco-Roman wrestling. James qualified for the 1964 Olympic team but was injured three days before he was to leave for the Olympics, causing him to miss the event.

After a stint in the Army, James landed a teaching job in Omaha Nebraska. He had aspirations of becoming a professional wrestler and contacted Omaha promoter Joe Dusek, who introduced James to AWA boss Verne Gagne. Gagne told Raschke to move to Minnesota so he could begin training. While training, Raschke found employment as a substitute teacher, while also helping set up the wrestling ring before the matches and doing some refereeing.