Crane Finds Contentment at Northridge : After Blowing Chance to Play for Major College, Linebacker Makes Most of Division II

For those familiar with Division II football, one glance at Jim Crane’s vital statistics is all that’s needed to cast some doubt. Either someone is fibbing, or the man is unique.

He is a 6-3, 240-pound outside linebacker who has been timed in 4.6 seconds for 40 yards.

If he played for Miami (the Hurricanes or Dolphins), those numbers would make sense.

But Crane is a junior at Cal State Northridge and the numbers don’t lie.

So why is he playing in Division II when his talent would qualify him for a Lamborghini Countach and a cushy, high-paying, part-time job at a Southwest Conference school?

How did he end up at Northridge? A wrong turn just outside of Norman, Okla.?

The answers are: Grades and on purpose.

Crane failed a high school economics final, which led him to take a test to obtain a graduation-equivalency diploma instead of graduating with his class.

Arizona, Arizona State and Brigham Young recruited Crane in high school, but he was only remotely interested in them--even if he had been eligible.

“I never looked at myself as much of a prospect, anyway,” he says. “I didn’t think I was big enough or quick enough. Other people did, but I didn’t.”

Besides, he wasn’t sure he wanted to play again.

“My head wasn’t on straight,” he says. “I didn’t know if I wanted football in my life.”

It was a game he had grown up with. “I had six brothers. I was forced to play,” Crane says. “I was the football. They were the quarterbacks.”

But he found it difficult to walk away. So he enrolled at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Junior College and decided to resume his football career.

During his time off, Crane had gained 30 pounds of muscle by weight training two hours a day, six days a week. The results were immediately apparent.

By the time his sophomore season ended, Crane was a JC All-American. Once again he was hounded by Division I recruiters, but this time he enjoyed every minute of it.

“For once I thought I had everything going my way,” he says.

Miami took a look at him on film and was ready to offer a scholarship.

Great, said Crane.

One problem, said David Haight, Crane’s junior college coach. Because he had not graduated from high school, Crane would need an associate of arts degree to be eligible in Division I. He was 26 units short.

His choices were limited. He could stay at Scottsdale, ask his major college suitors if he could miss spring practice and try to pass 26 units in spring and summer courses, or he could sign with a Division II school.

A marginal student, Crane decided his chances were slim of passing that many units in only a few months. But that didn’t make it any easier to accept. “I had Division I on my mind and I didn’t want to settle for Division II,” he says.

Admittedly, Crane is somewhat spoiled. “I’ve had things handed to me all my life,” he says. “Everything has always come easy. I was the lazy one. I’ve always been able to go 60% and perform well while everyone else in my family gave 110% and got cut from the team.”

All of which made for a rude awakening.

It was about this time that Haight called an old college buddy, Mark Banker, Northridge’s defensive coordinator. The two had talked about Crane before.

“He asked me if we would be interested in helping an out-of-state kid,” Banker says. “I said, ‘You mean that 6-3, 240-pound kid? You’re damn right we’re interested.’ ”

That Crane’s scholarship would cost about eight times as much as an in-state recruit made little difference to the Northridge coaches. “He’s worth every penny,” Banker says.

Neither did it matter that the Matadors already were well-stocked at outside linebacker.”When you get a guy like that, you make some changes to fit him in,” Coach Bob Burt says.

Whether Crane could handle the disappointment of playing at North Campus Stadium instead of the Orange Bowl was questionable, however.

After only a couple of weeks of spring practice at Northridge, he packed his bags and headed home, citing “personal reasons.”

He had problems within his family, problems with his girlfriend and problems with CSUN’s sparse weight room and cracker box stadium.

“I wasn’t in very good shape for about a month,” he says. “I was disappointed in myself and everything else.”

Fortunately for CSUN, his outlook changed dramatically over the summer.

“I love it here now,” he says, sitting on a chair near the south end zone of North Campus Stadium. “It’s not the big time, but we have a lot of talented players and a great coaching staff.”

He’s been happy ever since he aligned his priorities properly.

“I hope to make football my career,” he says. “I thought, am I going to let family problems and my girlfriend stand in the way of what I want?”

Injuries kept Crane out of practice for much of the summer conditioning sessions, so his playing time was limited in Northridge’s 30-0 season-opening loss against Boise State last Saturday.

His debut was less than spectacular. “On the first play I missed a stunt and got hit by my own inside linebacker and thrown to the ground,” he says. But he was effective enough to move into the starting lineup tonight in a home game against San Francisco State.

Northridge coaches say if Crane can stay injury free--he has chronic foot and shin problems--he will start the rest of the season, next year, and possibly in the NFL.

“When he’s healthy, he’s not a good player, he’s a great player,” Burt says.

“Potentially, he’s a high NFL draft choice,” Banker says.

Crane, a business major, says pro football is only one of his goals. He wants to become the first in his family to earn a college degree.

“I’ve probably been the worst one in my family as far as school,” he says. “I’d like to make my parents proud.”