Terry Bollea, who became world famous as the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, weighed 10 pounds and 7 ounces when born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Augusta on Aug. 11, 1953. His father was a pipefitter building the Savannah River atomic energy plant, and his family lived in an Aiken, S.C., trailer court. The Bollea family moved to Tampa, Fla., when Terry was young where he began bodybuilding in 1967.

In the late '60s and early '70s, he played bass guitar with a Florida band called Rukkus, and he returned to his native Augusta to perform at a Broad Street nightclub called the Whippin' Post. He studied business administration and music at the University of South Florida but began training as a wrestler in 1973.

Mr. Bollea moved to Venice Beach, Calif., in the '70s and became a professional wrestler under the name of Terry Boulder. Vince McMahon Sr., father of current World Wresting Federation owner Vince McMahon Jr., recruited Terry in 1979. It was the senior McMahon who named Mr. Bollea "the Incredible Hulk Hogan," in reference to the nickname of bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who starred on the then-popular TV series Incredible Hulk.