UNH Alum Publishes Bio on Hulk Hogan

Mark Dagostino never thought he'd write a book. In fact, he never thought he would have a career in writing.

Today, the New Hampshire native and 1992 University of New Hampshire alum recently finished his first book: a biography of wrestler turned reality star Hulk Hogan entitled "My Life Outside the Ring." The book gives an in-depth look at the wrestler's life and the struggles he has had throughout his career.

Consisting of one-on-one interviews with Hogan, the book focuses on Hogan's reasons for his attempted suicide, the toll of his divorce, talk about his son Nick's car accident which left the passenger of the car brain dead, and the legal troubles that accumulated because of these incidents. Mark spoke about his experience interviewing Hogan.

"It was pretty great to sit down in 10 hour stretches at his home and him being incredibly open and honest," said Dagostino of his interviews with the wrestling superstar.
Dagostino was born in Exeter and attended UNH. After graduating in 1992, he eventually became a writer for the arts section of the Boston Globe, covering bands, poets, and all things arts. After a brief stint with Entertainment Weekly, Mark landed at People magazine, doing freelance writing out of New Hampshire before moving to Los Angeles in 1999 where he reported on the local celebrities, and even dabbled in some playwriting.

"At the Boston Globe, my editor, Janet Insolia, really allowed me to be creative with my writing," Dagostino said. "I was able to go around and write with a lot of freedom. It really helped me to mature as a writer."

Dagostino's interest in professional wrestling began to develop during the 80's and early 90's, when Hulk Hogan was in his heyday. As viewers and fans tuned into their television sets and filled the stadiums to watch their favorite wrestling character fight epic battles with characters such as Andrea the Giant. Thus "Hulkamania" was born.

"I was a big fan of wrestling in the 80's," Dagostino said, "watching the Hulk, Andrea the Giant, and Super Fly."

After an illustrious career with the WWF, Hogan left the WWF and became a "bad guy" with a different wrestling company, the World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Winning another six championship titles there, he made a brief return with the WWF before taking a break from wrestling and signing with the television network VH1 for "Hogan Knows Best", a show that made his family a reality television sensation for wrestling fans everywhere.

When the show hit television, Dagostino was already a notable writer for People. Hogan's publicist contacted Dagostino to cover the television show and talk with the Hogan family, but the People's publishers were initially hesitant to cover it.

"At first the publisher said no," said Dagostino, "but I invited the Hogans into the office and they were a big hit with the publishers."

For five years after that meeting, Dagostino covered the Hogan family and the VH1 reality show and developed a comfortable relationship with Hulk Hogan. After several personal traumas, Hogan interviewed with Dagostino to cover these low points.

"Hogan went through the worst two years of his life," said Dagostino. "The overall sense of the book was to show how he found strength to move on and become a happier person now; how he went from who he was to who he has become."

 As Dagostino interviewed, he mentioned to Hogan that they should write a book. After all the legal negotiations were worked out, the interviews began for the biography of Hogan's life.

"We would drive around his old neighborhood," Dagostino stated, "and go out to eat sushi and authentic Mexican food and he would just talk about spending every waking hour with lawyers, his steroid use, drug use."

Dagostino never thought that he would write a book. In fact, as a student at UNH, he didn't even get into journalism until the second semester of his junior year.

"The only reason I took journalism was because it fit into my schedule and it wasn't too early in the morning," said Dagostino with a laugh.

However, Dagostino found he was a natural, and started writing for the UNH school paper, The New Hampshire, after only two weeks in his journalism class. He even managed to have the journalism staff ridiculed by UNH staff after covering a story on a stabbing. After hearing that a girl had been stabbed in his dorm, Dagostino picked up his notebook and ran to get the story.

Sue Hertz, a professor of English at UNH and Mark's news writing professor at the time, spoke about that event.

"The whole Journalism staff was called in at 7 a.m. and was blasted for allowing the paper to run the story," said Hertz.

According to both Hertz and Dagostino, the story reported information that the police had not yet released and was "a hardcore learning experience for both the editors of the paper and me," said Dagostino.

Much of his success, he said, was because of his choice to go to school at UNH, instead of his other options of Columbia or New York University.

"It's a great place to learn how to write; there are so many great professors there," Dagostino said about his education at UNH.

"You don't have to be at some big city school to get a big city writing career," Dagostino stated, "I don't think I would have the career I have if I had gone to a bigger school."

After writing for People for the last 10 years, Dagostino is moving on again. He is now a writer for tonic.com, a site that focuses on "good news" such as charitable causes, green initiatives, and forward thinking.