Wednesday, January 30, 2002
Lane was member of NFL's 75th anniversary team
Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas -- Hall of Fame football star Dick "Night Train" Lane, who went from Army soldier to record-setting rookie defensive back with the Los Angeles Rams in 1952, has died of a heart attack. He was 73.
Lane died Tuesday night at the Five-Star Personal Care assisted living facility.
A member of the NFL's All-Time Team for its first 75 years, Lane was an aggressive tackler whose ferocious signature hit -- a clothesline-type move dubbed the "Night Train Necktie" -- was banned by the league as too dangerous.
He had 14 interceptions in a 12-game season as a rookie, a mark that has stood for 50 years despite the schedule increasing to 16 games. His 68 career interceptions remain among the most in league history, and he returned them for 1,207 yards and five touchdowns.
Lane spent four years in the Army after junior college, then played 14 years with the Rams, Chicago Cardinals and Detroit Lions. He made the Pro Bowl six times.
Wed., Jan. 30
From watching "Night Train" Lane on film, the thing I remember about him is that he was a brutal hitter. He used to use the clothesline to go up around people's heads.
Lane was one of the all-time great defensive backs who could change the game not only in terms of intercepting the ball and returning it, but also in terms of hitting people. He would take people out.
At 6-foot-3, he was a huge defensive back back then. Of course, the passing game wasn't what it is now, with speedy receivers running all over the place. But you had to be able to tackle, and that was something he could do. "Night Train" Lane put a hurting on people.
He was selected the all-time NFL cornerback in 1969 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974. His Hall of Fame biography calls him a "gambler on the field who made spectacular plays ... Deadly open-field tackler ... Very fast, agile, aggressive."
"I played with him and against him, and he was the best I've ever seen," former New York Giants kicker Pat Summerall once said.
Once married to jazz singer Dinah Washington, Lane was listening to jazz the night he died, said Terry Yates, the personal care worker who assisted Lane for the last two years.
"I just helped him to bed. When he laid down he took a big gasp of air. He was having difficulty breathing. It wasn't 20 minutes before he was gone," Yates said.
Lane's mother was a prostitute and his father was a pimp known as Texas Slim. Abandoned in a Dumpster when he was 3 months old, Lane was found by a woman who at first thought his cries were a meowing cat. A widow with two other children, she adopted him.
A tough kid growing up in Austin, Lane earned the nickname "Cue Ball" for having thrown one into the back of the head of a boy who ran from a lost pool bet.
He didn't get the nickname "Night Train" until he was a pro. He would stop by a teammate's dorm room when the Buddy Morrow song "Night Train" was playing on the phonograph.
"I didn't like (the nickname) at first," Lane told the Austin American-Statesman last year. "I'd been called all sorts of names by that time, and I wasn't sure what they meant by that nickname. The veterans had given me the name, and it got national attention."
At 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, Lane was often bigger and faster than wide receivers. He tackled players by wrapping his arms around their neck and taking them to the ground, a move that would later be banned.
Lane was married and divorced three times, including his marriage to Washington, who was known as "Queen of the Blues."
After his playing career, Lane spent a short time as road manager for comedian Redd Foxx and had coaching stints at Southern University and Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Bothered by diabetes and chronic knee problems, Lane moved into the assisted living facility two years ago, said friend Chuck Carroll. He continued to sign autographs but had used a wheelchair for the last year and half.
Lane is survived by two sons, Richard Lane of St. Louis, and Richard Walker of Detroit. Funeral services were planned for Saturday. |
