In 1952 a man walked in off the street into the Los Angeles Rams offices carrying a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and asked for a tryout. He had never played college football. He was working at an aircraft plant, lifting sheets of metal out of a bin and feeding them into a press. That season he set a record that has stood for 74 years. His name was Richard Lane. He was born in Austin, Texas on April 16, 1928, and when he was three months old he was left in a trash bin, covered over with newspapers. A woman named Ella Lane found him and raised him alongside four other children. He grew up bussing tables and shining shoes. In 1948 he enlisted in the Army and spent four years at Fort Ord in California. He played for the base team and caught 18 touchdown passes in 1951. When he got out, he took the factory job. The Rams offices were on his way to work. They signed him as a free agent. In his first scrimmage on August 3, 1952, one writer called him the outstanding player on the field by a country mile. He got his nickname in training camp. A teammate named Tom Fears kept playing a Jimmy Forrest record called Night Train in his room, and Lane was always out in the hallway dancing to it. Then he played twelve games as a rookie and intercepted 14 passes. Fourteen. In twelve games. No player in the history of the National Football League has ever intercepted more passes in a season, and seasons are five games longer now than they were then. On December 7, 1952 he picked off three against the Green Bay Packers and ran one back 80 yards. The next week he picked off three more against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He finished with 68 interceptions over 14 years with the Rams, the Chicago Cardinals and the Detroit Lions. Seven times a first team All-Pro. He hit so hard the league changed the rules because of him. In 1961 he brought down Jon Arnett by the face mask at full speed, and the NFL made grabbing the face mask illegal the next year. He went into the Hall of Fame in 1974. Here is the part that is not on the plaque. He went to work in the Detroit Lions front office and became the first Black employee that franchise ever had in that building. Then from 1975 to 1992 he ran the Police Athletic League in Detroit. He grew it to 16 centers serving 20,000 kids. He died in Austin in 2002, at 73, after a game of dominoes, with jazz playing in his room. A baby in a trash can became the best there ever was at taking the ball away, and then spent seventeen years giving 20,000 children somewhere to go. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap