1. Mills Bee Lane III was an American boxing referee and professional boxer, a two-term Washoe County, Nevada district court judge, and television personality.
24 Facts About Mills Lane
1. 2.
On June 9,2013, Lane was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame on August 10 the same year.
3.
Mills Lane was born in Savannah, Georgia, on November 12,1937.
4.
Mills Lane attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played American football as a linebacker and ice hockey as a goaltender.
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Mills Lane joined the United States Marine Corps in 1956, and was discharged in 1959.
6.
Mills Lane became a boxer while serving as a Marine, becoming the All-Far East welterweight champ.
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Mills Lane was a National Collegiate Athletic Association welterweight boxing champion in 1960.
8.
Mills Lane refereed his first world championship boxing match in 1971, when Betulio Gonzalez had a fifteen-round draw with Erbito Salavarria for the WBC flyweight title.
9.
Mills Lane refereed the second fight between WBA Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield and challenger Mike Tyson on June 28,1997.
10.
Mitch Halpern was supposed to referee the fight, but Tyson's camp protested, so Mills Lane was brought in at the last minute.
11.
Mills Lane's shirt was stained with blood from the incident, and he sold it to a memorabilia collector on the same night.
12.
Less than three weeks later, Mills Lane refereed the Lennox Lewis vs Henry Akinwande match.
13.
Mills Lane was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013.
14.
In 1979, Mills Lane became Chief Deputy Sheriff of Investigative Services at the Washoe County Sheriff's Office.
15.
Mills Lane served as one of fourteen witnesses to Nevada's last gas chamber execution, that of Jesse Bishop that same year.
16.
Mills Lane was elected District Attorney in 1982 and District Judge in 1990.
17.
Lane presided over the court show Judge Mills Lane, which lasted for three seasons, from 1998 to 2001.
18.
Mills Lane made two appearances in the world of professional wrestling.
19.
Mills Lane appeared on the November 16,1998, episode of WWE Raw on the Titantron and made a ruling in regards to a contract dispute between Stone Cold Steve Austin and the McMahon family.
20.
Mills Lane was the special guest referee for a boxing match between "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Buff Bagwell at WCW Bash at the Beach on July 11,1999.
21.
Mills Lane was a guest voice actor on an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
22.
Mills Lane titled his autobiography Let's Get It On: Tough Talk from Boxing's Top Ref and Nevada's Most Outspoken Judge.
23.
In May 2006, Mills Lane made his first public appearance in years at the dedication of a new courthouse in Reno which is named after him.
24.
Mills Lane died from kidney failure at his home in Reno, Nevada on December 6,2022, at the age of 85.