Madison Lane, known to many as ‘Matt’ developed a love for basketball early in his childhood. His dad made his first basketball court in the backyard using a 20″ bicycle rim and a piece of plywood nailed to a pine tree with a net taped to it. Because it was smaller than the regulation goals at school, shooting wasn’t an issue. The tree roots and rocks in the dirt made the ground uneven so playing there helped Matt develop good ball control. That court came with built-in competition as Matt’s dad played his high school basketball at Phillis Wheatley and still had skills, at that time. Playing against his dad all the time Matt didn’t win many games. There were other factors that contributed to his success in making the team at school. Hustle and foot speed came from playing football with bigger and stronger guys trying not to get hit. Hand/eye coordination and timing came from playing the drums in the Kashmere Stage Band and the Thunder Soul Marching Band where he was first drummer and section leader. Madison played guard on the basketball team at I.M.Terrell Junior High. They were crowned district champs and defeated Francis Scott Key in first round of playoffs before falling to E. O. Smith in the city semi-final game.
Arriving at Kashmere in 1972 with Terrell teammates Carl Byrd, Charlie Ross and Henry Small, Matt would play the first half of the season on the junior varsity before moving up to varsity at mid-season. That year season record was 25-11and they was crowned district champs. He was the sixth man on the 1974 State Championship team, with a season record of 39-2. Matt senior year he was the starting point guard with a 12 point average. That year 1975, Kashmere team won a second state title with a record of 46-0. EA Sports ranked Kashmere the 1975 team # 1 in the nation and recently (staduimtalk.com) publication ranked them the 30th greatest high school basketball team in high school history!! Matt was ranked the no. 2 guard in the state as a senior, making All District, All City, and All State and made the state All Tournament team. He would close out his high school career with a 78 game winning streak and a combine 3 year career record of 110-13. He was selected to play an All-Star game in Shawnee Oklahoma, pitting Texas All-Stars vs Oklahoma All Stars.
Matt maintained a 3.7 grade point average during his stay at Kashmere which allowed him to be awarded a $4000 Worthing Scholarship for academic achievement, and accepted a full basketball scholarship to Rice University. He played there two years before transferring to Prairie View A&M University, where he finished his college career. He played in the Houston Pro-Am basketball league as well as on several city league teams. In 1984 he was invited to New York to play in a National All-Star Classic with Robert Reid, (former Houston Rockets) both representing the Houston area. After returning to Houston Matt was offered an opportunity to play professional basketball in France, which he respectfully declined.
In 1986 Matt got married and started a career in buying and selling real estate. In 1995 he started his own mortgage business after 11 years due to health issues stroke in 2006, heart attack in 2008 and hip replacement in 2010 Matt closed his business. Now would you believe Matt is back on the court 3 or 4 times a week playing the game that he truly loves moving much slower than before, playing half court twice a week and full court once a week. Matt divorced in 2016 afterward returning to the mortgage business.