On the 11 August, 1953,Terry Gene Bollea, better known as the professional wrestler, Hulk Hogan, was born in Augusta, Georgia. The son of construction foreman Pietro ‘Peter’ Bollea and dance teacher Ruth Bollea, he is of French, Italian, Panamanian, and Scottish descent.
As a boy, he was a pitcher in Little League Baseball, attracting scouts from the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds, but an injury put an end to his career prospects.
Music began to get in the way of his time in college, and he dropped out of the University of South Florida before earning a degree. Hogan was also an actor, television personality, entrepreneur and musician, who spent a decade playing bass guitar in a number of Florida-based rock bands. Hogan and two local musicians formed a band called Ruckus in 1976, which became popular in the Tampa Bay region.
Hogan began watching professional wrestling while in high school at 16 years old, and regularly attended cards at the Tampa Sportatorium.
During his spare time, he worked out at Hector’s Gym in the Tampa Bay area, and in mid-1977, after training for more than a year Hogan was handed a pair of wrestling boots and informed him that he was scheduled to wrestle in his first match professional wrestling debut against Brian Blair in Fort Myers, Florida. A short time later, Bollea donned a mask and assumed the persona of ‘The Super Destroyer’.
Hogan appeared on a local talk show, with Lou Ferrigno, the star of the television series The Incredible Hulk. The host commented on how Hogan, with 24-inch biceps, 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) tall, weighing 295 pounds, dwarfed ‘The Hulk’. As a result, Bollea began performing as Terry ‘The Hulk’ Boulder.
Hogan went on to headline multiple editions of the premier annual events of the WWF, and in his day was the most recognised and most popular wrestling star worldwide. He closed the most profitable WCW pay-per-view ever at the 1997 edition of Starrcade.
Hogan is a thirteen-time world champion, his first WCW World Heavyweight Championship reign is the longest in history, and his first WWF Championship reign the third-longest ever. Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2005, by Sylvester Stallone.
During and after wrestling, Hogan had an extensive acting career, beginning with his 1982 antagonist role in Rocky III.
11.August, 2019