Flo Hyman

Volleyball Player

• Born: July 31, 1954
• Birthplace: Inglewood, California
• Died: January 24, 1986
• Place of death: Matsue, Japan

Sport: Volleyball

Early Life

Flora Jean Hyman was born on July 29, 1954, in Inglewood, California. Inglewood is near the volleyball-playing beach communities of the South Bay. When she was young, Flo towered over the other children her age. When her schoolmates were 4 feet tall, she was 5 feet tall. Because of her unusual height, she had the nickname “Jolly Green Giant.”

Flo’s parents were also tall, but they were not athletes. Her father was a janitor with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Her mother, who died in 1978, cleaned houses until she later opened her own café, the Pink Kitty. Flo’s parents gave her an important model: to set a goal and be willing to work for it. Flo also had two older sisters, who played volleyball with her at Inglewood’s Morningside High School.

The Road to Excellence

The Morningside High School varsity team was the first volleyball team on which Flo played. As a freshman, she was allowed to try out for the varsity team, but she walked in the gym the first day of practice, saw the team playing, and walked out. Flo felt lanky and uncoordinated. The next year, however, she played on the varsity team. She did not learn to hit well until her senior year, when she was voted the team’s most valuable player.

From the day Flo heard that volleyball was an Olympic sport, she knew she was going to be on the national women’s team and play in the Olympics. Her coach in high school, Beth Di Stefano, took Flo and her teammates to United States Volleyball Association tournaments on Saturdays. They were searching for a club team where they could gain some playing experience. Flo first chose the Long Beach Hangers, based on the club’s teamwork and stylish uniforms. She then moved up to play for the South Bay Spikers, who became the U.S. champions in 1977.

In 1974, the citizens of Pasadena, Texas, began providing homes, jobs, and scholarships at the University of Houston for women volleyball champions to train for the 1980 Olympics. Flo was asked to join the national team. She studied mathematics on her volleyball scholarship at the University of Houston. In 1974, she led her team to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship. When she graduated in 1980, she had been an all-American for three years.

The Emerging Champion

In 1979, the women’s national team qualified for the Olympics in a zonal contest against Cuba. Even though the U.S. team came in second, Flo was named the most valuable player for the tournament. The individual award did not mean as much to her, however, as the chance to compete in the Olympics. However, the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and the hardworking national team could not reach its goal of earning an Olympic medal.

Flo was one of seven players who dedicated four more years to the pursuit of an Olympic medal in volleyball. Under the guidance of Coach Arie Selinger, the team trained six to eight hours a day for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Flo was the team leader and spokesperson. If Flo played well, so did the team. She was the oldest woman volleyball player in the 1984 Olympics, turning thirty years old on the first day of competition. In Los Angeles, the U.S. women’s team won the silver medal, losing to a talented team from China in the finals. Flo’s leadership on the Olympic team inspired more African American women athletes to play volleyball.

Continuing the Story

Flo Hyman was a major force in turning the women’s national team from a recreational to an international competitor. Many athletes would be disappointed with winning a silver medal instead of a gold medal, but Flo was proud of her silver medal. The license plate holder on her car read “1984 Olympian: A Silver Lined With Gold.” She had set a goal to win an Olympic medal and worked for ten years in pursuit of it.

In 1985, Flo retired from the national team. She was not satisfied to rest on her accomplishments in volleyball. She tried a brief acting career. In the 1985 movie Order of the Black Eagle, she played a warrior named Spike. She felt she had some experience for acting from all of her interviews about volleyball. Then she decided to go play volleyball in Japan for a year.

On January 24, 1986, Flo’s Japanese team Daiei was playing a match against Hitachi in Matsue, Japan. In the third game, Flo came out of the game during a normal substitution. She sat down on the bench and started cheering for her team. In a few moments, she collapsed. She was taken to the Red Cross Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. Flo had died of a rare disease known as Marfan Syndrome, which strikes tall, slender people. She was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. With Marfan Syndrome, a person’s heart enlarges and forces weak spots in the aorta to burst. In most cases, there is no method of detecting the disease. Because of Flo’s death, awareness of the symptoms of Marfan Syndrome has increased. Many tall, slender athletes in volleyball and basketball have been tested for the disease.

Summary

Flo Hyman will always be considered one of the best women volleyball players in the world. She always represented a dedication to excellence. Several awards and scholarships have been given to women athletes in memory of Flo’s determination to work and her will to succeed.

Bibliography

Markel, Robert, Susan Waggoner, and Marcella Smith, eds. The Women’s Sports Encyclopedia. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.

Miller, Ernestine G. Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women’s Sports. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2002.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008.

Woolum, Janet. Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They Are and How They Influenced Sports in America. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1998.