He won four NFL championships (1922, 1923, and 1924 with the Bulldogs and 1933 with the Bears) and was selected five times as a first-team All-Pro player (1923, 1924, 1925, 1930, and 1934).

[1] As an infant, his family moved to Rawlins County, Kansas, where his father, Edwin Lyman, was a farmer, raised stock and engaged in the real estate business.

[16] The Bulldogs were coached by Guy Chamberlin, an All-American out of Nebraska, who invited Lyman to join the team.

[23] In July 1925, Lyman and four of his teammates (Pete Henry, Rudy Comstock, Ben Jones, and Harry Robb) bought the team for $3,500 and moved it back to Canton.

[27] In December 1925, Lyman joined the Chicago Bears and took part in a winter barnstorming tour that featured football player Red Grange.

Lyman was selected as a first-team All-Pro by Collyer's Eye magazine and the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

[32] Lyman started at left tackle for Chicago in that game, with the Bears emerging victorious over the New York Giants, 23–21.

[34] After the 1934 season, Lyman was selected as a first-team All-Pro by the United Press, Green Bay Press-Gazette, and Collyer's Eye.

[35] Bears' coach George Halas later observed that Lyman was "stronger and tougher during his last two seasons than when he first joined the team eight years earlier.

His sliding, shifting style of defensive line play confused his opponents and made him one of the most respected players of his time.

"[36] Steve Owen, who played with Lyman in 1925 and later served as coach of the Giants, recalled: "Link was the first lineman I ever saw who moved from the assigned defensive position before the ball was snapped.

"[37] Lyman received many honors for his contributions to the game, including being inducted into the Helms Foundation major league football Hall of Fame (January 1961)[38] and the Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame and receiving the University of Nebraska's Distinguished Alumni Award in June 1961.

[39] His greatest honor came in February 1964 when he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the second class of inductees.

[44] In December 1934, Lyman was hired as an assistant football coach under Dana X. Bible with the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

In December 1941, the Nebraska Athletic Board voted not to renew Lyman as the football team's line coach.

He was driving to Las Vegas on I-15 when his automobile crashed into the back of a semi-trailer truck 12 miles south of Baker.