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Founder of Gay Games

Tom Waddell (born Thomas Flubacher; November 1, 1937 – July 11, 1987) was an American physician, decathlete who competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and founder of the Gay Olympics (later known as the Gay Games). Adopted by former vaudeville acrobats, Waddell excelled in athletics and eventually attended medical school. He competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and after a career ending injury, he started a successful medical practice in San Francisco. Inspired by his experience in a gay bowling league, Waddell founded the Gay Olympics, emphasizing sportsmanship, personal achievement, and inclusiveness. He also had a daughter with lesbian athlete Sara Lewinstein. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, Waddell died in 1987. His life and contributions to LGBTQ history have been posthumously honored in multiple ways.

Waddell was born Thomas Flubacher in Paterson, New Jersey, to a Catholic German American family. His parents separated when he was in his teens, and at the age of fifteen he went to live with Gene and Hazel Waddell, for whom he did chores; they adopted him six years later. The Waddells were former vaudeville acrobats and encouraged Tom to take up gymnastics. Gene Waddell is one of the men in the famous photograph of acrobats balancing atop the Empire State Building. In high school, Tom Waddell excelled in athletics. Waddell attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on a track scholarship. Originally majoring in physical education, he switched to pre medicine following the sudden death of his best friend and co captain of the gymnastics team, an event that moved him deeply. At Springfield, he competed on the gymnastics and football teams. In the summer of 1959, Tom worked at a children's camp in western Massachusetts, where he met his first lover, socialist Enge Menaker, then a 63 year old man. They remained close for the rest of Menaker's life, which ended in 1985 when he was 90 years old. He died on July 11 the following year, aged 49, in San Francisco, California. His last words were "Well, this should be interesting."

In 2013, Waddell was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display which celebrates LGBT history and people. In 2014, a street in San Francisco formerly named after Lech Wałęsa was, due to a homophobic comment by Wałęsa, renamed Dr. Tom Waddell Place. The street already featured the Tom Waddell Health Center. In 2014, Waddell was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields."