 Kramer's 1959 Topps football card | |||||||||||||||||
| No. 64 | |||||||||||||||||
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| Positions | Guard Placekicker | ||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1936-01-23)January 23, 1936 (age 89) Jordan, Montana, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 245 lb (111 kg) | ||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||
| High school | Sandpoint (Sandpoint, Idaho) | ||||||||||||||||
| College | Idaho (1955–1957) | ||||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1958: 4th round, 39th overall pick | ||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||||
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Gerald Louis Kramer (born January 23, 1936) is an American former professionalfootball player, author and sports commentator. He played 11 years as aguard andplacekicker with theGreen Bay Packers of theNational Football League (NFL). He was inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Kramer playedcollege football for theIdaho Vandals before being selected by Green Bay in the fourth round of the1958 NFL draft. Kramer was an integral part of the famousPackers sweep, a signature play in which both guards rapidly pull out from their normal positions and lead-block for the halfbacks going around the end. Kramer was anAll-Pro five times, and a member of theNational Football League 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Before his election into the Hall of Fame at age 82, Kramer was noted for being a finalist for the Hall ten times without being voted in. In 2008, he was rated No. 1 inNFL Network'sTop 10 list of players not in the Hall.[1][2] Kramer was inducted into the Hall of Fame on August 4, 2018. At his induction speech, he quoted something his high school coach had often told him: "You can if you will".[3][4]
Born in easternMontana inJordan, Kramer moved with his parents and five siblings from northernUtah tonorthernIdaho when he was in the fourth grade, settling inSandpoint. After graduating fromSandpoint High School in 1954,[5][6] he accepted a football scholarship to theUniversity of Idaho inMoscow to play for new head coachSkip Stahley.[7] In that era, Idaho was a member of thePacific Coast Conference, the forerunner of thePac-12.[8]
Kramer was a standout two-way player for theVandals,[9] along with teammate (and road roommate)Wayne Walker ofBoise,[10] a future All-Pro linebacker with theDetroit Lions. Following the1957 season, both played on the winning side in theEast-West Shrine Game in late December inSan Francisco,[11][12][13] and at theCollege All-Star Game inChicago in mid-August,[14] in which they defeated thedefending NFL championLions.[15] Kramer was also a starter for the winning North team in theSenior Bowl in January inMobile, Alabama.[16][17]
Kramer's number 64 wasretired by the university in 1963, on his 27th birthday.[18][19] (He wore #74 as a sophomore tackle in1955,[20] and #57 on the freshman team in 1954.)[21] While at UI, Kramer was a member ofSigma Nufraternity,[22] and also lettered in track and field (discus andshot put).[23]
Kramer was the 39th selection of the1958 NFL draft, taken in thefourth round by theGreen Bay Packers.[13] Two otherhall of famers for the Packers were taken in this draft: fullbackJim Taylor ofLSU in the second round (15th overall), and linebackerRay Nitschke ofIllinois in the third round (36th overall).[24] Kramer played every game in his rookie season of1958 under first-year head coachRay "Scooter" McLean, but the Packers finished with the worst record (1–10–1) in the twelve-team league. In January1959, the Packers hired a new head coach,Vince Lombardi, theoffensive coach of theNew York Giants.[25][26]
Jerry Kramer did not know how good he was when he first joined the Green Bay Packers. You'd be surprised how much confidence a little success will bring.
With Kramer playingright guard, the Packers won five NFL titles and thefirsttwoSuper Bowls. He was also the team'splacekicker in1962,1963, and part of1968. As a kicker, he made 29field goals, 90extra 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 theNew York Giants in the1962 NFL Championship Game at frigidYankee Stadium.[28] In1963, he was jovially described as "the bestknuckleball kicker in the NFL."[29] In college at Idaho, he was also a kicker, with Walker as hislong snapper; Walker was also a part-time kicker in the NFL for Detroit.
During his NFL career, Kramer was often injured: among these were surgery to remove sizable wood fragments embedded in his abdomen from a teenage accident over a decade earlier,[30][31][32][33] and a badly injured ankle suffered in1961. In all, Kramer played in 129 regular season games; he also had 22 surgeries in 11 seasons, including acolostomy, which he described as "a horror movie that hasn't been made yet."[34] Despite these setbacks, Kramer was selected as an All-Pro five times (1960,1962,1963,1966, and1967); he was elected to theWisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. Kramer is a member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time team,[35] and was the final member of the team to be elected into thePro Football Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was named to theProfessional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in the association's inaugural HOVG class.[36]
On August 24, 2017, Kramer andHouston Oilers linebackerRobert Brazile were named as Seniors Committee finalists for thePro Football Hall of Fame for 2018.[37] On February 3, 2018, both were selected for induction into the Hall of Fame as part of its 2018 class,[38][39] with induction occurring on Saturday, August 4.
Kramer also did some broadcasting as a color commentator forCBS in1969, and later forNBC - Week 2, withChuck Thompson on the play-by-play, Miami Dolphins @ Buffalo Bills, on September 11,1988.
In his penultimate season of1967, Kramer collaborated withDick Schaap on his first book, the best-sellingInstant Replay,[40] a diary of the season which chronicled the life of a professional football offensive lineman. The book climaxed with Kramer'slead block in front ofBart Starr to win the "Ice Bowl" championship game. Kramer and Schaap wrote two more books together. Kramer played one more year, under newhead coachPhil Bengtson in1968. Following that season, in which the aging Packers fell to a record of 6–7–1 and missed theplayoffs, he wrote a second book,Farewell to Football. After retiring as a player in May 1969,[41][42] Kramer briefly worked as acolor commentator onCBS' NFL telecasts.
Following Lombardi's death from cancer in1970,[43] Kramer editedLombardi: 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 wroteDistant Replay, which updated the whereabouts of the members of the Packers'Super Bowl I championship team following a team reunion atLambeau Field during the1984 season.[44]
In October 2005, he releasedInside the Locker Room, aCD set that includes Lombardi's final locker room address as the head coach of the Packers in January 1968, immediately after Super Bowl II. In September 2006, Kramer re-released his 1968 bestseller,Instant Replay.[45]
In 2023, Kramer co-wrote 'Run to Win' with Bob Fox. The book was published byTriumph Books.[46]
Kramer was noteworthy for overcoming a series of accidents and health issues prior to and during his professional football career.[47][48] The most serious was in1964; he played the first two games then missed the rest of the season, later diagnosed at theMayo Clinic withactinomycosis.[49] After his wood fragment removal surgery in May1965,[30][32][33] he reclaimed his starting position at right guard and the Packers wonthree straight NFL titles (and the first two Super Bowls) and he was a first-team All-Pro twice more.
The original accident in the summer of 1953 occurred when Kramer was chasing a calf on his family's farm and the calf stepped on a board, shattering it and shooting a lance-shaped splinter of wood into Kramer's abdomen; after piercing his abdomen, the splinter partially exited Kramer's back between two vertebrae. Doctors cut the piece in two and pulled it out front and back; two weeks later, Kramer was at pre-season football practice at Sandpoint High School for his senior season.[47] As a freshman, he backed into a lathe inshop class and incurred muscle damage to a hip, and was later in a car accident. While hunting, Kramer's shotgun exploded, which significantly injured his right forearm. He suffered broken bones, torn muscles, and nerve damage, which required plastic surgery and skin grafts. Some of the lead shot also penetrated his liver. To this day, Kramer cannot use the little finger on his right hand.[47]
In college at Idaho, Kramer was on the field for nearly every play until the final game when he incurred a minor knee injury.[47] He played in two All-Star games shortly after.
After retirement from the NFL, Kramer lived on a ranch nearParma insouthwesternIdaho with his second wife Wink,[50] then later moved toBoise.[51] Twice divorced, Kramer has six children: Tony, Diane, Daniel, Alicia, Matthew, andJordan. He has five grandchildren. His youngest sons, Matt and Jordan Kramer, also played college football at the University of Idaho. Jordan, named after the Montana town in which Kramer was born,[52] played two seasons in the NFL as a linebacker with theTennessee Titans in2003 and2004.[51]
After turning eighty in early 2016, Kramer auctioned off several items of memorabilia to raise college funds for his grandchildren, including his ring from thefirstSuper Bowl, which was sold for $125,000.[53]
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