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- Jim Lane
Jim Lane
A cornerstone of the Mirror who helped lay the muse for native sports protection is being fondly remembered.
Jim Lane handed away at Homewood at Martinsburg on Monday. He was 85.
His influence on the area sports scene dates again to 1960, when his profession on the Mirror started.
“When growing up in the Mirror and before I started my career, I enjoyed meeting Jim and others when my dad would take us on a tour,” Mirror Publisher Dan Slep, whose household based the Mirror in 1874, stated. “Visiting as many employees that we could, Jim always greeted us with a smile and a handshake. Jim helped build the sports department into what it is today. When you came to a sporting event and saw Jim, you knew we would have the best coverage in the region.”
Lane labored as a two-man sports division with Herb Werner early on and was later joined by Frank Polito. He grew to become sports editor in 1980 till his retirement in 2002 after which continued with part-time assignments for one more 20 years.
Those he coated had excessive admiration for him.
“Jim was well known and respected,” retired Bishop Guilfoyle soccer coach Tom Irwin stated. “I considered him to be a good friend to me and so many others. As a sports writer, I always felt Jim knew what to say and how to make it interesting and factual.”
His column, referred to as “Down the Lane,” was particularly standard.
Though he coated all Blair County excessive colleges, Lane was finest identified for his presence at Altoona Area High School.
Tom Bradley, former AASD director for public relations, stated Lane’s work could be discovered within the household archives of Altoona’s massive alumni base.
“For more than 50 years, Altoona Area High School’s passionate sports fans knew they could savor Jim Lane’s written account of the previous night’s action,” Bradley stated. “I’m sure lots of his articles are framed and displayed in numerous properties and workplaces or proudly saved in scrapbooks.
“In my 25 years of coordinating press box space at Mansion Park during football playoff season, a vast majority of media from across Pennsylvania expected me to call them to find out if they needed a spot. Jim’s professionalism as the Altoona Mirror sports editor was unmatched. He would always call me first thing Monday morning to tell me which reporters and photographers would be coming to cover the next weekend’s games. His attention to detail and kindness were always appreciated.”
Lane coated Williamsburg’s Don Appleman as an athlete and a coach.
Appleman referred to as him, “one of the finest people I’ve ever known. Jim was positive and fair, and we never had a cross word. Every game or event he went to, he made it special.”
Within the sports division, Lane promoted a pleasant, collegial mentality.
“Jim made lasting impacts at the Mirror and in the area sports community,” Sports Editor Buck Frank stated. “As sports editor for several decades, he oversaw many changes, including technological, and an increasing staff size during newspapers’ heyday. He allowed young reporters the room to grow, develop and find their niches in sports journalism. After his retirement, he continued to add his expertise and be a great ambassador for the Mirror.”
While the Mirror has stored the majority of its sports employees collectively for a few years, some launched to different alternatives.
“Jimmy was Mr. Altoona Mountain Lion,” Dave Mackall, who went from the Mirror within the Nineteen Eighties to an extended writing profession on the Washington Times and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, stated. “When I think of my many mentors, I think of Jim Lane. He was a warm and caring man whose inviting smile always seemed to accompany a familiar greeting, ‘Hiya doin’, Pal?’ There wasn’t a nicer man in the business.”
Now the NBA’s senior vice chairman of operations, Tim Frank grew up mates with Lane’s son, Jeff, and bought his toes moist within the Mirror sports division.
“Mr. Lane was like a father figure to me and so many of Jeff’s friends as we were growing up,” Frank stated. “We noticed him as a star as a result of, let’s face it, actually everybody knew him, however his humility, humor and kindness had been what at all times shined by.
“The impact he had on my professional career was immeasurable. He and the Altoona Mirror gave me so many incredible opportunities that helped teach me about the sports profession and what my role could be in it. Without his guidance, there is no way I would have ever found this path. He was a giant in our community and in my life.”
Frank has rubbed elbows with a lot of the NBA greats, previous and current. He is especially near Charles Barkley, who as soon as made headlines for pushing again on the suggestion that athletes be position fashions.
“Parents,” Barkley countered, “should be role models.”
Jeff Lane and his sister Jill imagine they’d these position fashions of their dad and mom, Jim and Jean, who handed away in 2021.
“My dad was my inspiration,” Jill stated. “My love of sports came from him. I put my mother’s love for teaching and my dad’s love for sports and made it my life.”
She recollects attending Steelers and Penn State video games and “learning to keep the scorebook at the Pittsburgh Pirate games.”
Most of all, the boldness he instilled allowed Jill, regardless of being 4-foot-10, to play faculty basketball at Gettysburg.
“He taught me so much about all sports that I never felt intimidated to try,” she stated, including her dad and mom by no means missed one in every of her video games.
Two of Jeff’s favourite recollections had been tagging alongside along with his dad to attend Chuck Noll’s closing post-game press convention with the Steelers and assembly Michael Jordan at a summer season NBA exhibition sport in Pittsburgh.
He tried to comply with in his dad’s footsteps not as a sports media member however as a father for his two youngsters.
“Not only did I get to be on the floor for the game, but I was also able to meet Michael, while my dad was doing a pregame interview with him,” Jeff stated. “People my age grew up during the age of Michael Jordan and everyone wanted to ‘Be Like Mike.’ I am proud to say that I just wanted to be like my dad.”
In addition to Lane’s day-to-day protection on the Mirror, he made an annual journey to spring coaching to look at the Pirates and the Altoona Curve — his favourite sport was baseball — whereas Jean collected a whole lot of autographs.
In 2002, the Curve’s press field at Peoples Natural Gas Field was named for Lane, who was the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame’s first Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2010.
His Father’s Day column, first written after his father Kermit died in 1987, has additionally been an annual fixture.
“He and Jean were great together,” Irwin stated. “I always felt they were the perfect couple.”
“I loved discussing Altoona High athletics and Penn State football with Jim and his wonderful wife, Jean,” Bradley stated. “They were both pillars of the local sports community and will always be fondly remembered.”
When Lane stepped away from full-time work — with a view to coincide his semi-retirement similtaneously Jean, a trainer at Altoona — greater than 300 attended a tribute dinner on the Lakemont Casino.
His cousin, Tom Lane, the previous Bishop Guilfoyle basketball coach, was one of many audio system.
“You did the name proud, Jim,” Tom stated as he wrapped up his remarks. “You did the name proud.”
Friends will probably be acquired from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at Myers-Somers Funeral Home in Altoona. A funeral Mass will probably be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Altoona.
An entire obituary will seem in Saturday-Sunday’s Mirror.