| Flying Foursome of Morgan State University | |
| Fullname: | Flying Four of Morgan State University |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Country: |  |
| Sport: | Track & Field |
| Event: | Relay Teams |
| Team: | Morgan State College (1951-1955) |
The Flying Four Morgan State Track Relay Team 1951-1955, also known as "Flying Foursome" or the "Speed Merchants", was a track team of Morgan State University that was inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame. The four members were James Rogers, Otis Johnson, Herman Wade and Joshua Culbreath.
Edward "Eddie" P. Hurt became the head track coach at Morgan State College in 1929. When the CIAA conference still stood for "Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association", Coach Hurt reportedly said, "We had a heck of a problem getting started; there is no question about that." At that time, the small black colleges competed with one another and received little national attention. Hurt said, "It was hard to get recognition, especially in track & field, and we just never had a chance to compete against the better schools. When we first started trying to improve our program, nobody knew we were alive."[1]
Coach Hurt started developing a premier program and by 1950 Morgan State's Track Team was drawing national and international attention due to the impressive showing at the Penn Relays. In 1950, The Historic Four (Sam LaBeach, Bob Tyler, Bill Brown and George Rhoden) broke a record at the Penn Relays that stood for 56 years. Many elite track athletes came to the school because of the popularity of its track team and coach Hurt. In 1975, he was the first African American coach to be inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame.[2]
In 1951, Coach Hurt recruited James Rogers, Otis "Jet" Johnson, Herman Wade and Joshua Culbreath. Sam Lacy dubbed the team "The Flying Four" and "The Speed Merchants". In 1953, the Flying Four went on to break the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Mile Relay mark set by their 1950 predecessors, Morgan's Historic Four, with a new time 3:11:3. During their 4 seasons, this foursome won 13 national championships, 26 major titles and 3 records. The Flying Four is the only team that ever won the national AAU Championship three years in a row with the same team members. This team set a new record each year in New York and won five relay titles at Penn Relays Championship of America. They won meets at Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden, Boston Athletic Association, Knights of Columbus, Millrose Games, New York Athletic Club Championship, the Baltimore Amateur Athletic games, the Philadelphia Inquirer Games and the Washington Evening Star Games.
They were inducted into the Morgan State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985[3] and the CIAA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.[4]