COACH
The 1954 graduate of Wisner High went on to attend UN-L where lettered in baseball for three years and was twice selected All-Big 7 catcher. After college he spent three seasons in the New York Yankees farm system. Leaving baseball in 1962, Jim took a job as teacher and coach at Waterloo High School for two years before moving up the road a ways to St. John’s Seminary, which later would be known as Mt. Michael, as its first basketball coach and intramural director. That job evolved into being the “all everything coach” as other sports were added. His cross country teams were state champions in 1967 and 1968. Kane-coached football teams had an overall record of 174-93 and two state championships in ’82 and ’90 while qualifying for the playoffs a total of 10 times. Jim coached his basketball teams to an overall record of 531-254 with 12 trips to the state tournament. Four of those trips were consecutive, ’82 to ’85, and two were champions, ’83 and ’85. As a track coach he had many successful seasons taking the Class C state championship in ’73. Jim was selected as World-Herald Coach of the Year in 1983.
