17 Facts About Flo Hyman

Flora Jean "Flo" Hyman was an American volleyball player.

Flo Hyman was an Olympic silver medalist and played professional volleyball in Japan.

In January 1979, in an interview, Flo Hyman said that she found the stares and questions about her height that she got from strangers irritating, but she had learned to live with it.

In 1970, at the age of 16, Flo Hyman started playing volleyball professionally.

Flo Hyman graduated from Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, and then attended El Camino College for one year before transferring to the University of Houston as that school's first female scholarship athlete.

Flo Hyman spent three years there and led the Houston Cougars to two top-five national finishes, but did not complete her final year, instead focusing her attention on her volleyball career.

Flo Hyman left Houston to play for the national team, based in Colorado.

When Flo Hyman joined, the squad was sorely in need of leadership.

Flo Hyman played in the 1981 World Cup and the 1982 World Championship, when the US won the bronze medal.

Flo Hyman was so popular in Japan that she began a modeling and acting career there and was constantly in demand.

Flo Hyman intended to return to the United States permanently in the summer of 1986, but never got the chance to do so.

On January 24,1986, Flo Hyman collapsed while sitting on the sidelines after being substituted out in a game against Hitachi in Matsue.

Flo Hyman told her team to keep fighting, then moments later slid to the floor.

At first, the cause of Flo Hyman's death was stated to be a heart attack.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy, Dr Victor Rosen, said that Flo Hyman physically had been in superb condition except for a dime-sized weak spot in her aorta.

Experts believed Flo Hyman was lucky to have survived as long as she did, playing a physically demanding sport such as volleyball.

Flo Hyman was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, on January 31,1986.