Dick Lane

CTL-E-7031 · Person · other · 1928–2002

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07903 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7031.

Richard 'Dick' Lane (1928–2002), known as 'Night Train,' walked into the Los Angeles Rams' office in 1952 after Army service and junior college football, asked for a tryout, and produced the greatest ball-hawking season in NFL history. Starting all 12 games as a rookie, Lane intercepted 14 passes — setting, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame's words, an NFL single-season record that still stands — and returned them for a league-best 298 yards and two touchdowns. Over a 14-year career with the Rams, the Chicago Cardinals and the Detroit Lions, he intercepted 68 passes, a total the Hall notes still ranked fourth on the NFL's all-time list, and was famed as one of the game's most ferocious tacklers. Lane played in seven Pro Bowls, was named All-Pro repeatedly across 1954–1963, and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974, his career a landmark for Black defensive backs in the league's hard first decade of reintegration.

The record

• Also known as: Richard Lane, Night Train Lane, Dick "Night Train" Lane

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0385. Firsts disposition: no racial first is claimed for Lane; the record's landmark is statistical — the 14 interceptions of his 1952 rookie season are carried exactly as the Pro Football Hall of Fame states them: an NFL single-season record that still stands, set in a 12-game season. Birth year note: most authorities give April 16, 1928 (Hall of Fame/Wikipedia tradition); one autograph reference gives 1927 — the record uses 1928 per the Hall-line sources and states years only. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Lane walked in off the street six years after reintegration and immediately set a record no one has touched in more than seventy years of longer seasons; the record's endurance, not any barrier claim, is his monument. Photo: CLEARED — 'Dick Lane 1962.JPG,' Commons description 'Dick Lane in 1962,' Category:Night Train Lane, Public domain; the file's metadata upload date (2014) is not the photograph date.

Sources

• Pro Football Hall of Fame. "'Night Train' Makes Stop in Another Hall of Fame." ProFootballHOF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Encyclopedia.com. "Lane, Dick." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-7031 · Combined Graph record U-07903 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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