The Augusta-born wrestling and pop-culture icon, Hulk Hogan passed away on Thursday. Born Terry Bollea at Saint Joseph Hospital in 1953, Hogan’s family moved to Florida a couple of years later. You might be surprised to learn that, though he only lived in Augusta for a short time, there is a Hulk Hogan file in the Augusta University Special Collections and Archives.
A part of our Don “Ramblin” Rhodes papers, the file contains an article written by Rhodes about Hogan’s return to Augusta as a wrestler in 1989 at the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center. According to the article, Hogan had last appeared in Augusta 14 years earlier as Terry Gene Bollea bass player for the band Ruckus at the Whippin’ Post nightclub on Broad Street. The article also quotes Hogan’s mother as saying “…I am sure Terry is proud of being born there. When he was in his high school band in Tampa, he used to tell his friends he was ‘an Augusta Peach.’”
The Hulk Hogan file also contains a personal letter from Hogan’s mother, Ruth Bollea, to Don Rhodes. In it, she discusses her son’s work shooting the short-lived TV series Thunder in Paradise, including some of the promotional materials for the series, as well as his first wrestling match with World Championship Wrestling after leaving the WWF (now WWE) the previous year.
Though the majority of his life was spent elsewhere, his ties to Augusta remain an important part of both his and our city’s story. We share our condolences with those grieving the loss of Augusta-born Terry Bollea, and Hulk Hogan the icon he became.
