Green Bay Packers in the Hall of Fame: Jerry Kramer

How many people are aware that Jerry Louis played for the Green Bay Packers?

Not Jerry Lewis, the erstwhile comedian, but Gerald Louis “Jerry” Kramer, the guard.

Most football fans do, actually, especially after Kramer became a recent inductee into the NFL Hall of Fame (class of 2018).

Born in 1936 in a miniscule town named Jordan in east-central Montana (between state capital Helena to the west and North Dakota to the east, and also between the Fort Peck Indian Reservation to the north and the Crow Reservation to the south), Kramer played all 11 of his seasons in the NFL for the Packers – from 1958 to 1968 (inclusive).

A five-time NFL champion, including the first two Super Bowls, Kramer was also chosen for multiple All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams.

Kramer was selected as part of the all-decade team for the 1960s, the NFL’s 50th anniversary team in 1969, and was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975 (43 years prior to inclusion in the NFL Hall of Fame).

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As a guard, Kramer is primarily renowned for his blocking prowess, but he was also a good kicker, converting more than 50 percent of his field goal attempts (29 of 54), and almost 95 percent of his extra points (90 of 95).

As for his work as an offensive lineman, Kramer was the “poster man” (at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, I think Kramer is too stout to refer to as a child) for the quintessential “pulling guard,” possessing the speed and athleticism, as well as the bulk and brawn, to lead the way on the Lombardi Packers’ signature Power Sweep/Packer Sweep/Lombardi Sweep.”

Kramer was one of three eventual Hall of Fame selections the Packers made in the 1958 draft: fullback Jim Taylor in the second round, linebacker Ray Nitschke in the third, and Kramer in the fourth.

If you are not curious as to who the Packers selected in the first round of that 1958 draft (with overall pick number three), skip the rest of this paragraph. It was linebacker Dan Currie, who was no slouch himself, spending seven years with the Packers, and a total of nine in the NFL. Currie was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. He died just a few months ago, on Sept. 11, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada, just three weeks before the mass shooting there.

While still playing (in 1967), Kramer became co-author (along with Dick Schaap) of a book chronicling that season which was entitled “Instant Replay.”

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In 1967 came the season of “The Ice Bowl,” when Kramer blocked for Bart Starr on his successful quarterback sneak that won the championship game against the Cowboys, paving the way (no pun intended) for the Packers to play in, and win, Super Bowl 2 over the Oakland Raiders, 33-14.

Kramer currently resides in Boise, Idaho, where he is almost as famous as potatoes.