It was supposed to be a routine flight for a man whose life was anything but routine.

The T-6 Texan, a two-seater advanced training aircraft, took off from Tuskegee airfield in the morning of March 23, 1945.

Weather was clear, temperatures were in the 60s.

The plane's destination was Mayo Airport, a small airstrip operated by the Army Air Force during World War II in Reidsville, N.C.
On board was Flight Officer Charles W. Stephens and a man whose life had been anything but routine.

Major Harold D. Martin was the other passenger.  Martin was flying with Stephens as the flight officer was undergoing his final flight tests.
Suddenly, 30 yards from the airfield, the airplane's engine unexpectedly stopped.  Stephens tried to glide the plane to a safe landing, but there was a house in the direct flight path.

The plane went into a deep bank and dove directly into the ground.  The engine was ripped from the fuselage.  Stephens was killed instantly.
An eyewitness to the crash, Homer Ferris, rushed to the scene of the crash.  Martin was still alive, but barely.
He would die in Ferris' arms and pass into legend.

At the time of his death on that sunny March day, Harold Douglas Martin had become possibly the most successful coach and administrator to ever grace the halls of Virginia Union University, Virginia State University, Shaw University, and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Martin entered this life on April 14, 1899, in Cambridge, Mass., In 1916, a Boston-area scholarship committee wrote to Norwich University, the military college of Vermont, to see if they would admit him.

Norwich did, and Martin became the first African-American cadet at the school.

It would be the first of a long line of firsts in Martin's life.

He majored in engineer, but excelled more on the gridiron, the baseball field, in track and field, and even became the first African-American player in college ice hockey. He was even elected captain of the football and baseball teams.

He sang in the Glee Club, played in the Mandolin Club, was a member of the Norwich Student Council, editor of the War Whoop (Norwich's college newspaper) and became the first school's first black graduate.

Upon graduating in 1921, Martin accepted a job offer from the Westinghouse Corporation, but the company rescinded the offer when they learned Martin was black.

It would be the last time race ever held Martin back from doing something.

Martin accepted a teaching position at Miner's Teacher's College (now the University of the District of Columbia) in Washington, D.C.

In the summer he pitched, played third base and right field for the Pittsburgh Keystones of the Negro National League. 

He then accepted the Athletic Director's position and became head coach of Virginia Union University football, baseball and basketball teams.

It was at Union where Martin's true talent came into focus.  In his first year, 1921, the Panthers went 5-0, including an 85-0 win over Morgan State University, and won their first CIAA Championship in four years.

The 1923 season saw the greatest achievement Martin and the VUU football team ever recorded.  The Panthers not only went undefeated again and won the CIAA Championship, the Maroon and Steel recorded six shutouts in seven games and won the mythical Black College National Football Championship awarded by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper.

On the baseball field, Martin guided the Panthers to two CIAA championships and a second place finish in three seasons.

Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., hired Martin as Athletic Director in 1924, where he guided the Bears to CIAA championships in tennis in 1926 and in men's basketball in 1927.

In 1927 Martin returned to Virginia when he took over as Athletic Director at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va. where he won the CIAA Football Championship in 1929.

In 1933 Martin became a full-time faculty member back at Miner's Teacher's College while also becoming Director of Football Officials for the CIAA.  He was authorized for the faculty position by President Herbert Hoover.

In 1933, Martin formed the first football team at Miner's, and went undefeated with a squad made up of freshmen and sophomores.
In all, his college football coaching career record is 63-22-12.  His three-year VUU record was a stellar 17-2-3.

Martin could have stayed in the coaching and faculty ranks for the rest of his life, but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he registered for active duty.

His decision shocked many. 

"What is Harold Martin Doing?" screamed the headline on the January, 30, 1943, column by columnist Lem Graves , Jr., of the Norfolk Journal and Guide.

It turned out that Martin had been inducted into the Army Air Force as a Captain and sent to Tuskegee, Ala., to train a squadron of fighters which became known as The Tuskegee Airmen."

His squadron, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, was the first African-American fighter squadron in World War II. 

The Tuskegee Experiment, as it was known in its early years, built one of the most successful air units in military history. Martin first arrived at Tuskegee Army Air Field in May of 1942. He would be promoted to Director of the Ground School in March of 1943 and continue in that role until his untimely death in March of 1945.

Several books and movies have been focused on the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen and routinely focus almost exclusively on the pilots. Several of those pilots have spoken out about the backbone of their unit being the ground crews and instructors. The intense and advanced instruction given at Tuskegee was often credited with the overall success. The ground school courses normally covered engineering, maintenance, armament, gunnery, advanced navigation, and both tactics and techniques of aerial warfare. These lessons helped the Tuskegee Airmen to fly over 1,500 missions, over 15,000 sorties, while destroying over 260 enemy aircraft. They also won more than 850 medals.

In the immediate aftermath of Martin's death, he was eulogized at length by almost all in the African-American sporting community.

"We at Virginia Union are deeply distressed to hear of the untimely death of Coach Harold Martin, who began his career here," said VUU Athletic Director Henry Hucles.  We shall remember him as an inspiring leader and an efficient official and a coach who exemplified the highest ideals of sportsmanship."

"News of the tragic death of Major Harold D. Martin brought deep grief to the officers, members of the faculty and many graduates of Virginia State College, where the late Major Martin served as chairman of the Department of Physical Education and head coach of football, basketball, track and baseball for a period of six years," said then-Virginia State President Luther H. Foster. 

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Martin left behind a wife, Beatrice, and twin sons, Ernest and Harold, and his influence is still felt to this day.

At Norwich University, there is the "Harold 'Doc' Martin '20 Memorial Scholarship," the scholarship is awarded to talented Norwich students in need.  He was inducted into the Norwich Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984.

He was inducted into the Virginia Union University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013, 90 yeaers after winning the school's only national football championship.

And at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Oh., there stands a memorial to the man who excelled in every aspect of life and had one simple motto:

"I will try."