Jim Lane

A cornerstone of the Mirror who helped lay the foundation for local sports coverage is being fondly remembered.

Jim Lane passed away at Homewood at Martinsburg on Monday. He was 85.

His impact on the area sports scene dates back to 1960, when his career at the Mirror began.

“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 family founded the Mirror in 1874, said. “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 worked as a two-man sports department with Herb Werner early on and was later joined by Frank Polito. He became sports editor in 1980 until his retirement in 2002 and then continued with part-time assignments for another 20 years.

Those he covered had high admiration for him.

“Jim was well known and respected,” retired Bishop Guilfoyle football coach Tom Irwin said. “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, called “Down the Lane,” was especially popular.

Though he covered all Blair County high schools, Lane was best known for his presence at Altoona Area High School.

Tom Bradley, former AASD director for public relations, said Lane’s work can be found in the family archives of Altoona’s large 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 said. “I’m certain many of his articles are framed and displayed in countless homes and offices 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 covered Williamsburg’s Don Appleman as an athlete and a coach.

Appleman called 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 department, Lane promoted a friendly, collegial mentality.

“Jim made lasting impacts at the Mirror and in the area sports community,” Sports Editor Buck Frank said. “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 kept the bulk of its sports staff together for many years, some launched to other opportunities.

“Jimmy was Mr. Altoona Mountain Lion,” Dave Mackall, who went from the Mirror in the 1980s to a long writing career at the Washington Times and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, said. “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 president of operations, Tim Frank grew up friends with Lane’s son, Jeff, and got his feet wet in the Mirror sports department.

“Mr. Lane was like a father figure to me and so many of Jeff’s friends as we were growing up,” Frank said. “We saw him as a celebrity because, let’s face it, literally everyone knew him, but his humility, humor and kindness were what always shined through.

“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 most of the NBA greats, past and present. He is particularly close to Charles Barkley, who once made headlines for pushing back on the suggestion that athletes be role models.

“Parents,” Barkley countered, “should be role models.”

Jeff Lane and his sister Jill believe they had those role models in their parents, Jim and Jean, who passed away in 2021.

“My dad was my inspiration,” Jill said. “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 recalls attending Steelers and Penn State games and “learning to keep the scorebook at the Pittsburgh Pirate games.”

Most of all, the confidence he instilled allowed Jill, despite being 4-foot-10, to play college basketball at Gettysburg.

“He taught me so much about all sports that I never felt intimidated to try,” she said, adding her parents never missed one of her games.

Two of Jeff’s favorite memories were tagging along with his dad to attend Chuck Noll’s final post-game press conference with the Steelers and meeting Michael Jordan at a summer NBA exhibition game in Pittsburgh.

He tried to follow in his dad’s footsteps not as a sports media member but as a father for his two children.

“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 said. “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 coverage at the Mirror, he made an annual trip to spring training to watch the Pirates and the Altoona Curve — his favorite sport was baseball — while Jean collected hundreds of autographs.

In 2002, the Curve’s press box 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 also been an annual fixture.

“He and Jean were great together,” Irwin said. “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 said. “They were both pillars of the local sports community and will always be fondly remembered.”

When Lane stepped away from full-time work — in order to coincide his semi-retirement at the same time as Jean, a teacher at Altoona — more than 300 attended a tribute dinner at the Lakemont Casino.

His cousin, Tom Lane, the former Bishop Guilfoyle basketball coach, was one of the speakers.

“You did the name proud, Jim,” Tom said as he wrapped up his remarks. “You did the name proud.”

Friends will be received from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at Myers-Somers Funeral Home in Altoona. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Altoona.

A complete obituary will appear in Saturday-Sunday’s Mirror.