In the early 1930s, Clem Murdaugh began repairing motorcycles in his father's chicken house in West Chester, Pa. He then established Murdaugh Cycle Shop, but soon discovered that his real talent was in competition rather than tuning. Murdaugh emerged as one of the top hillclimbers of the 1940s, winning a National Championship in 1948.
Murdaugh was also one of the first motorcycle racers with mass-market appeal. He was featured in a classic full-page print advertisement for Camel cigarettes that ran in Popular Mechanics in the late 1940s.
Clem Murdaugh was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.