Over its first 40 years, the Big East has produced many great rebounders, not all of whom were seven feet and above. To this day, one of the the conference's best was a 6-6 forward named Jerome Lane.

Lane was among the highest rated recruits in Pitt history when he signed with the Panthers in the fall of 1984, averaging 27 points and 14 rebounds at Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary HS, and held the kind of records which would eventually be swept away two decades later by St. Vincent's LeBron James. With a Pitt lineup that included the talents of Charles Smith, Demetrius Gore, and Curtis Aiken, the Panthers struggled in Lane's freshman year, where he started 17 games and finished fourth in scoring with a 9.1 points average.

Following a inconsistent 15-14 season, Roy Chipman resigned after the 1985-86 season and was succeeded by Navy coach Paul Evans, sending the Panthers skyward. After the first week of the 1986-87 season, the Panthers were ranked in the Top 20 for the first time in 13 years and stayed there all season. The scoring of Charles Smith and the rebounding of Jerome Lane led the way en route to Pitt's first regular season title in the Big East. Lane averaged 15.8 points and 13.5 rebounds a game, leading the nation in rebounding as a sophomore and becoming the shortest player (6-5) to do so since Niagara's Alex Ellis in 1957-58. In Big East play, he averaged 17 points and 13.7 rebounds en route to the Panthers tying a school record for victories (26) and earning a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament, where they fell in a second round upset to Oklahoma.

With the return of three starters and the addition of highly recruited freshmen Sean Miller and Jason Matthews, hopes were high for a Final Four bid for the Panthers, who spent most of the 1987-88 season in the Associated Press Top Ten, ranked as high as #3 and no lower than #11. Lane was one of the featured quotes in a Dec. 29, 1987 report on the Panthers in the New York Times:

"He is averaging 12.8 rebounds and 10.4 points per game this season, and he seems to have scrapped his dreams of being primarily a scorer.

"That's my role," he said about playing inside and concentrating on rebounding. "I don't go out and try to do anything else, or overdo anything. I just try to get as many rebounds as I can."

Lane enjoyed another outstanding season in 1987-88, finishing with with 13.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, but became part of college basketball legend on Jan. 25, 1988 when Pitt hosted Providence at Fitzgerald Field House on a nationally televised ESPN broadcast.

Early in the first half, Sean Miller picked up a steal in the backcourt and fed it to a streaking Lane, whose dunk shattered the backboard, sending the sold out crowd into bedlam. Lane wasn't the first player to shatter a backboard -- Boston Celtics forward turned actor Chuck Connors did it in 1946, and Philadelphia 76ers center Daryl Dawkins did it twice in the 1979-80 season. But Lane's was the first such event in college basketball, and a first to a live, nationwide audience.

Following the dunk, lead announcer Mike Gorman let the crowd do the talking, leaving analyst Bill Raftery to pause and utter the four most famous words in basketball that season:

"Send it in, Jerome!"


 
The ensuing 32 minute delay was certainly unplanned at ESPN, which had no other programming to go to, leaving Gorman and Raftery to fill time while a replacement backboard and rim could be located in the building and repositioned on the Fitzgerald floor.

"That dunk just energized the crowd," recalled Providence guard Eric Murdock in a 2011 ESPN feature. "The game was over right there. We were pretty demoralized."

The Panthers rolled to a 90-56 victory, and went on to win eight of its next ten heading into March.

At 22-5, Pitt finished the regular season as the top seed in the Big East Tournament for a second straight season, but its season peaked just as the 1986-87 season had, falling in the Big East semifinals. A #2 seed in the 1988 NCAA Tournament was a high water mark for Pitt basketball under Evans, but the Panthers lost in the second round to Vanderbilt.

Lane left Pittsburgh after his junior season and joined teammate Charles Smith to become the school's first two selections in the first round of the NBA draft. Selected by the Denver Nuggets as the 23rd pick, Lane averaged 5.3 points and 5.8 rebounds a game in a five year career, but saw time in only 16 minutes per game behind a veteran Denver lineup.

Jerome Lane is still fondly remembered by Pitt fans, and was given a standing ovation in 2018 at a halftime ceremony.

"First of all, you gotta think about it," he told the audience. "After 30 years, you still get a standing ovation?" "I'm very happy the people appreciate what I've done [here]," he added.