The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 80

6 THE SUN-TELEGRAM Nov. 28, 1975 rana era USEE can beat you. This boy is smart. He throws head fakes at you, body fakes, fakes with his eyes. "He comes at you and pussyfoots around and when he makes his move you can tell.

These receivers give you fits. A good fake has got to beat me, but the thing is not to give up. You've got to have a sense of recovery. "I look at the belt buckle, at the waistline which is always fixed no matter how much faking is going on with the feet and hands. I don't want to look at the head or eyes because they can fool you good if you do.

I try to come at an angle where I can see both the quarterback and receiver and I try to keep the receiver on the outside." Night Train played it with an especial elan, an independent style in a sport that demands universal teamwork. The defenses were not the computer-programmed sophisticated alignments of today when Lane's career began auspiciously in 1952. The basic pass coverage was man-to-man. The zone was a rarity. It was a receiver vs.

a defender and the football became the property of the swifter, more adroit and often more daring. In his rookie year Lane seized 14 pass interceptions in a 12-game schedule for the Rams. The record still exists in bold print in Pete Rozelle's thick records manual. He was avant garde in life style and in playing field performance. he vision is imperishable, although it is 10 years since Night Train Lane cavorted at a posi tion he popularized with a flair he alone created.

The quarterback is John Unitas or Y. A. Tittle or even Norm Van Brocklin and as he retreats in mine- flexes. Nobody can learn to play like him because he gambles so much. There's no one like him." There was woe for any enemy who happened to wander nearby Lane with a football in tote.

As unorthodox and deadly as his gambling in pass coverage was his distinctive tackle. It was a tackle around the jugular of the unfortunate who invaded his area. "My object is to stop the'guy before he gains another inch," he said in as statemert now included in the NFL's archives. "I'm usually dealing with ends who are trying to catch passes and if I hit them in the legs they may fall forward for a first down. There's nothing I hate worse than a first down.

It means I have to stay out there for three more plays. I grab them around the neck so I can get back to the bench and sit me down." His theory, always, was to get to the ball. "MY OBJECT IS TO STOP THE GUY BEFORE HE GAINS ANOTHER INCH." He is retired now, bitter because blacks of ability are ostracized by the organizations of pro football. He has drifted much of his life, in and out of football. As a boy in Austin, Texas, he worked shining shoes and stocking merchandise and bussing dishes.

The Lions stuck him into a token back office job and the bitterness increased. He tried making it as proprietor of a taco restaurant and lately he was a bodyguard for comedian Redd Foxx. But that didn't last long. He was in college coaching for a time, yearning for an NFL job. Just a few weeks ago the City of Detroit hired him to direct its Police Athletic League program.

He gravitated and became more bitter and there was tragedy, too, for Lane in his marriages and personal life. During his late playing career, he married Dinah Washington, the illustrious blues singer. A few months later she died and Lane grieved. The career started as a discharged soldier riding the BeverJy Boulevard bus in L.A. He had a scrapbook and when he saw the sign RAMS on an office building he jumped off the bus and asked for employment.

He received it along with the lifelong nickname Night Train because he liked so well the recording by Buddy Morrow of a song of that name. Last year Night Train Lane, already voted by pro football the best cornerback ever, was elected to the Hall of Fame in Canton. He was a rare unanimous choice, voted in 23-0. And on the day of his en-shrinement, his bitterness oozed out publicly and the pro football hierarchy tabbed him as an in-grate. "I hope black players band together and insist on more black coaches and even general managers," Lane said at a time when an orthodox organization man would have been melancholy, sentimental and thankful.

But Night Train Lane, the best ever, always acted as the spirit moved him. vase jt 7 It is all lovely theory, grist for the cornerbacks' textbook. But Night Train Lane thrived for 14 seasons in the NFL against the classic quarterbacks and receivers because he was swift and daring and because he gambled. UThe taboo word was used by his coaches. "PLAYING CORNERBACK IS THE HARDEST THERE IS iU ON DEFENSE." was a gambler," said George Wilson, who brought an aging, twice-discarded Lane to the Lions and coaxed All-Pro play out of him for six years.

"He's always been a gambler. That's the way he played, and that's the way I liked it. Sometimes he lost a gamble and it cost us But most of the time he won it. Hiked players who could wirv.n 0 "He was bound to guess wrong The trouble was when he came up with the big play, a key interception, the crowd expected it asr a matter of course. It was easier to fault him when he got beat on a pass: Playing corner-back is the hardest assignment there is on defense.

You're alone out there." When Lane was still active, teammate Jim, a re-, ceiver, said; "He's a gambler, but he recovers if he's going wrong. That's what separates him from He swaggered and bragged a decade before ir became the mode of the times and the people called' doing your own Train played an undisciplined, reckless style which is in marked contrast to the assigned, zones that, proliferate in roamed' and he gambled, apd free lanced and he succeeded hrore often than he was burned' and beaten. Hi6 style of defense was gambling and the necktie or clothesline tackle. It was showmanships (before, white shoes and tape fcpatsl were introduced. He neverc4rtsidered spiking the football on the end of one of his touchdown.returnsr) Gambling was his game allowing the receiver freedom, then darting in to intercept and.

risking a touchdown if be But Lane would never admit to being a high stakes gambled He spoke, instead, in mystical terms bt angles and percentages and settings and keys. "You can'f "'playC at guessing game," Lane j'wbuld say when asked to explain his unorthodox style. "They'll kill you if you do. You've got to play the percentages. You've got to genartngle on your man antf play hini close.

If you don't they'll kill you. "The main idea about playing cornerback is your ifjtlall Setting. You must be in the proper position at all times with the precise angle on, your. opponent, jf-youive him so' much as a step at the start1, he ing steps with the football the arm is cocked. The receiver dashes ahead he could be Jimmy Orr or R.

C. Owens or Elroy Hirsch. He streaks from the line, fluttering his eyes in seductive maneuvering with his body. He feints inside, a post pattern, then cuts sharply toward the sideline. IN HIS ROOKIE YEAR LANE SEIZED 14 PASS INTERCEPTIONS.

Jhe quarterback throws the football, briskly, accurately. The receiver is open, the defender, lagging Inside, is beaten. Cleanly. Now there is a blur, a quick, precise, calculated movement, from the defense, The airborne football fails to reach its destination. Night Train Lane, so suddenly, is between the quarterback and the receiver and leaping, it is his football.

An interception. A gamble. A winning roll, shoot it all on the 7. There were cornerbacks in professional football before Richard (Night Train) Lane stepped off a bus in Hollywood and became a superstar. But these men who defended against passes were called by other, now archaic, terms.

The cornerback nomenclature came to prominence in the 14 years Lane romanticized the position with his derring-do for the Rams, Cardinals and Lions. He was the best ever to perform at the most deli-j cate position on the defense: most cornerbacks his natural re.