I have lower back problems that run in my family.  What I do not understand is that in highschool i didnt have them that often or that bad.  I am 21 now and have been out of highschool for 3 years and have gained quite a bit of weight (which i am shedding back off as we speak) and when i say quite a bit i mean about 50 lbs.....well i have about 15 lbs back off and i was wondering if there is any lower back workouts that could maybe strengthen the muscles back there or will getting lighter help out with the pain?  I am very active in many different kinds of sports, and it hampers my ability to play them...any help would be appreciated

i actually had back surgery about four years ago when i was a sophomore in hs.  the athletic trainer always made me do the arm bike, sit ups, pushups help, some ball routines.  i'm not sure what those exercises are called, but i'm sure if you google for them you'll find something. 

First thing, you mention back problems that run in your family- Are we talking about a specific condition here, or just general lower back pain? If it's just general pain with no physical/medical reason behind it, you could definitely benefit from some direct lower back work. Talk to a doc if you're not sure which it is.
Carrying extra weight around can definitely be hard on the back too.
If there's nothing actually stopping you, start out with some light, light deadlifts- If they're no problem, and you've learned the correct form properly, add weight as able to lift within the eight to ten rep range. Again, if there's no real reason why you can't do this, strengthening your lower back will definitely help you with this problem.
Ever since I started doing squats and deadlifts, my lower back seems to be injury proof- before that, I used to get back pain from activity too.

Sounds good....i will try to go extremely light on squats on days that it doesnt hurt that bad......oh and back problems being my grandfather had surgery on his lower disks in his back, as well as my father did, and my older sister is about to have surgery on her lower disks.......i think the actual thing that runs in the family is bulging disks...do you know of this?

The main thing that makes me wonder about it is that some days i feel that i could ride a bucking bull.  I mean i go out and play a hardcore game of basketball....maybe a little football or a game of golf....all of which use your back and i am fine...no problems at all, but then somedays i wake up and i can't hardly stand up properly...you know what im talking about if you have had this....the ol' push up on the computer desk so that you can straighten you back........to me i doesnt seem like i have bulging disks because i think that it would hurt all the time....my sister has it and basically her back is never good it just hurts more somedays than others.  All i know is that i need to reverse this process because I love sports and a bad back and sports do not go hand and hand