Naming of 4-way

The story behind the name “4-Way” is an interesting one.  From 1972-1990 the name was “Vic Hennig Loft”.  He changed the name to “4-Way Loft” naming it after a specific race he won. 

Years ago, there was a race called the “4 Way Race”.  This was a rather unique race unlike any other.  The “4 Way Race” was only offered & flown a total of 3 times in the 45 years Victor had been racing.  This particular race called for all racers to fly 2 birds from all 4 compass directions at the same time…North, South, East, West.  Meaning, each racer flew a total of 8 birds in this race.  Each direction was 100 miles out.  All birds were released at the same time. racing home from all 4 directions.

He was the only racer that received his birds home from all 4 directions before anyone else.  So, he won 1^st place in all 4 races in one day from all 4 directions.  The Racing organization flew this race 3 separate times over the years.  The first year was in 1975, 2^nd year was in 1976.  Then, for reasons unknown to Victor, they stopped having this race until 1990.  But there was plenty of speculation floating around insinuation the racers didn’t feel they had a chance of winning against Vic, so why have this race….hummm.

The 3^rd & final time this “4 Way Race” was offered & flown was in 1990.  If you recall, this was the 1990 US Olympic Festival and the race was called the “4 Directional Race”.  It was this race that branded Vic as the “4-Way Guy”.  Not only did he win first place in All 4 directional races, but in this race, he actually won 2^nd place in All 4 directions as well.  So, in case you’re confused at all, yes, all 8 of Vic’s birds clocked in before any other racer received any of their birds home from any of the 4 directions.  But the racing organization refused to give Victor recognition for winning both first & second place in all 4 races so the record only reflects he won 1^st in all 4 directions.   Personally, I am going to have to agree to disagree with the racing organization’s decision to cheat my dad out of his notable 2^nd win.

Well, I’m sure you can now understand why he changed the name of his loft to “4-Way Loft” right after his victorious wins.  Vic truly earned and wore that name like a badge of honor, so much so that even his pickup truck license plates said “4-Way”.  He really was the “4-Way Guy”.  Since his passing his fellow pigeon club buddies have hung those license plates up on the wall in the club house to pay tribute to Vic.