Column: Letters led Ramblin’ Rhodes to Hulk Hogan

(Columns sometimes contain opinion)

When I saw the TMZ article Thursday that Hulk Hogan had died my first thought was – “I wish Don Rhodes was still here.”

In his Ramblin’ Rhodes’ style, Don would’ve written a lively column about the Augusta native who was born as Terry Gene Bollea at the former St. Joseph Hospital (now Piedmont Summerville) in 1953 and went on to wrestling fame as Hulk Hogan.

He would’ve had the story to tell about how he tracked down the wrestler’s mother, Ruth Bollea, to interview her when Hulk wrestled in Augusta in 1989 and how they kept in touch.

And he might’ve slipped the details about the Allman Brothers’ sneaking into Augusta’s Southern Rock Night club — The Whippin’ Post — in the late 1970s.  Also playing that night was a Florida band called Rukkus whose tall bass player with long blonde hair later turned to a career in pro wrestling.

Don was a master of finding hidden gems like those.

Prior to Don’s death two years ago, he wrote a column for Augusta Good News called Ramblin’s Roads, and after his death, I became acquainted with his sister, Linda Humphreys. She and I have kept in contact since. She even sent me a previously unpublished piece of Don’s on baseball player Ty Cobb to run in Augusta Good News.

It was a stab in the dark when I asked if she had anything on Hulk Hogan that Don might not have published. My philosophy is that if you don’t ask the question, the answer will always be “no.”

Less than 30 minutes after my text, Linda sent me photos of four letters Don had saved from Hulk’s mom plus an autographed photo.

I’m not sure what’s the most incredible part of that last sentence — the speed of the response or the sheer fact that the information existed in the first place. The letters were tucked away (envelopes and all) in an aging photo album.

I’ve seen several of Don’s scrapbooks before, and they are pop culture time capsules. Many of them are at Augusta University’s Reese Library. I’m going to put in this link to a recent story about Augusta University Libraries preservation efforts of those scrapbooks.

Ruth Bollea’s letter to Don dated Oct. 17, 1989 was the longest.

She wrote about working at the Savannah River Plant from 1952-1955. Her husband, Peter, did pipe work, and their third child, Terry, was “our only son born in the USA. His two older brothers were born in Central America.”

Hulk had just returned from a jaunt to “London, Paris, Germany” where he was promoting the movie “No Holds Barred.”

 She then mentioned his “beautiful daughter Brooke” and his “lovely wife Linda” before signing off as “Ruth ‘Hulk’s mom’” and giving him her unlisted phone number.

 A follow-up thank you note arrived on Nov. 9, 1989.

Four years would go by until she sent him two more notes. The final one in May 1993 contained a long promised autographed photo.       

Thank you, Don, for leaving some info behind for me to tell a short story and to Linda for sharing this with me.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.