Gerald Louis Kramer (born January 23, 1936) is a former professional American football player, author and sports commentator, best remembered for his 11-year National Football League (NFL) career with the Green Bay Packers as an offensive lineman. Kramer will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of its 2018 Class.
As a 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 245-pound (111 kg) right guard, Kramer was an integral part of the famous Packers sweep, a signature play in which both guards rapidly pull out from their normal positions and lead block for the running back going around the end. Kramer was an All-Pro five times, and a member of the NFL's 50th anniversary team in 1969.
Before his election into the Hall of Fame in 2018, Kramer was noted for being a finalist for the Hall ten times without being voted in. In 2009, he was rated No. 1 in NFL Network's Top 10 list of players not in the Hall of Fame.
Video Jerry Kramer
Early years
Born in eastern Montana in Jordan, Jerry Kramer moved with his parents and five siblings from northern Utah to northern Idaho when he was in the fourth grade, settling in Sandpoint. After graduating from Sandpoint High School in 1954, he accepted a football scholarship to the University of Idaho to play for new coach Skip Stahley. In that era, Idaho was a member of the Pacific Coast Conference, the forerunner of the Pac-12.
Kramer was a standout player for the Vandals, along with teammate (and road roommate) Wayne Walker of Boise, a future All-Pro linebacker with the Detroit Lions. Following the 1957 season, both played in the East-West Shrine Game, and the College All-Star Game that summer, in which they defeated the defending NFL champion Lions. Kramer would have his uniform number 64 retired by the university. (He wore #74 as a sophomore tackle in fall 1955, and #57 on the freshman team in 1954.)
While at UI, Kramer joined Sigma Nu fraternity, and also lettered in track and field (discus and shot put).
Maps Jerry Kramer
NFL career
Kramer was the 39th player selected in the 1958 NFL Draft, taken in the fourth round by the Green Bay Packers. Two Hall-of-Famers for the Packers were taken in this draft: fullback Jim Taylor of LSU in the second round (15th overall), and linebacker Ray Nitschke of Illinois in the third round (36th overall). Kramer played every game in his rookie season of 1958 but the Packers finished with the worst record (1-10-1) in the twelve-team league. In January 1959, the Packers hired a new head coach, Vince Lombardi, the offensive coach of the New York Giants.
With Kramer playing right guard, the Packers won five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls. He was also the team's placekicker in 1962, 1963, and part of 1968. As a kicker, he made 29 field goals, 90 extra points, for a total of 177 points. He also scored ten points, on three field goals and an extra point, in the Packers 16-7 victory over the New York Giants in the 1962 NFL Championship Game at frigid Yankee Stadium. In 1963, he was jovially described as "the best knuckleball kicker in the NFL." In college at Idaho, he was also a kicker, with Wayne Walker as his long snapper.
During his career, Kramer was often injured. Among these were surgery to remove sizable wood fragments embedded in his abdomen from a teenage accident, and a badly injured ankle suffered in 1961. In all, Kramer played in 129 regular season games; he also had 22 surgeries in 11 seasons, including a colostomy, which he described as "a horror movie that hasn't been made yet." Despite these setbacks, Kramer was selected as an All-Pro five times (1960, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1967). He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. Kramer is a member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time team, and was the final member of the team to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was named to the Professional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in the association's inaugural HOVG class
On August 24, 2017, Kramer and former Houston Oilers linebacker Robert Brazile were named as Seniors Committee finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2018. Then, on February 3, 2018, Kramer was selected for induction into the Hall of Fame as part of its 2018 class.
Author
In his penultimate season of 1967, Kramer collaborated with Dick Schaap on his first book, the best-selling Instant Replay, a diary of the season which chronicled the life of a professional football offensive lineman. The book climaxed with Kramer's lead block in front of Bart Starr to win the "Ice Bowl" championship game. Kramer and Schaap wrote two more books together. Kramer played one more year, under new head coach Phil Bengtson in 1968. After that season, in which the aging Packers fell to a record of 6-7-1, Kramer wrote a second book, Farewell to Football. After retiring in May 1969, Kramer briefly worked as a color commentator on CBS National Football League telecasts.
Following Lombardi's death from cancer in 1970, Kramer edited Lombardi: Winning Is the Only Thing, a collection of reminiscences from coaches, players, friends and family of Lombardi whom Kramer interviewed for the book.
In 1985, Kramer wrote Distant Replay, which updated the whereabouts of the members of the Packers' Super Bowl I championship team following a team reunion at Lambeau Field during the 1984 season.
In October 2005, he released Inside the Locker Room a CD set that includes Vince Lombardi's final locker room address as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, immediately after Super Bowl II. In September 2006, Kramer re-released his 1968 best seller, Instant Replay.
Health issues
Kramer was noteworthy for overcoming a series of accidents and health issues prior to and during his professional football career. The most serious was in 1964; he played the first two games then missed the rest of the season, later diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic with actinomycosis. He reclaimed his starting position in 1965 and the Packers won three straight NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls.
Personal
After retirement from the NFL, Kramer lived on a ranch near Parma in southwestern Idaho with wife Wink in Boise. Kramer has six children Tony, Diane, Daniel, Alicia, Matthew and Jordan (first three from his first marriage) and five grandchildren. His youngest sons, Matt and Jordan, also played college football at Idaho. Jordan, named in memory of Hall of Fame defensive tackle Henry Jordan, played two seasons in the NFL as a linebacker with the Tennessee Titans in 2003 and 2004.
Shortly after turning eighty in early 2016, Kramer auctioned off several items of memorabilia to raise college funds for his grandchildren, including his ring from the first Super Bowl, which fetched $125,000.
References
External links
- Jerry Kramer.com - personal web site
- Jerry Kramer Site Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame /Jerry Kramer web site
- Sports Illustrated - cover - 22-Jan-1968 - Vince Lombardi on shoulder following Super Bowl II
- Jerry Kramer statistics
- Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame
- University of Idaho Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame
- Fox News.com - video - Jerry Kramer and Lynn Swann with Chris Wallace at Super Bowl XLV - 2011-02-06
- Career statistics and player information from NFL.com · Pro-Football-Reference ·
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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