n History of Cougar athletics ..........

ball team that played in the early years before disbanding in the late 60s. From that football team came one famous player, Dick “Night Train” Lane who went on to have a stellar NFL career and being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Lane was also one of the first inductees into the WNCC Athletic Hall of Fame.

I remember talking to Night Train for a story and it was interesting of how I found him. I was bored in my college newspaper, The Spectator office and decided to find some of the older players. Back in the 90s, there wasn’t the Internet like there was today. There wasn’t cell phones either like today. That one special day, I picked up the phone and called the Detroit Lions media office and talked to a guy that knew where he was working -- the Detroit Police Athletic League. They gave me that department’s number and I kept staring at it wondering if I should call. I never called someone that famous before.

After about an hour I called and he answered and we talked. After we talked, he got my address and sent me, by mail, two autograph photos. He was so nice and told me about what it was like living in Scottsbluff for the semester that he was on the football team and why he left after the first semester. For people that didn’t know, Lane’s mom was living in Scottsbluff and he came up to live with here after his stepmom passed away. He enrolled at Scottsbluff Junior College and was a star for the Cougar football team. He, however, wasn’t a fan of how his mom was living so he dropped out of school after a semester, enlisted into the army and served his country.

After serving his country he was seen playing football by some NFL teams and was offered a tryout. That was all that needs to be said because he made a name for himself in the NFL with Detroit and the LA Rams.

Dick “Night Train” Lane wasn’t the only player to make a name for himself. I also got to watch Bobby Jackson play for the Cougars in the mid 1990s and I loved how he played and went on to have an outstanding NBA career. Jackson is still in the NBA

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