Jerry Kramer clarifies old tales, reveals new Green Bay Packers stories in latest book 'Run to Win'
GREEN BAY – Jerry Kramer has stories to tell. Some you've no doubt heard, but his new book, "Run to Win: My Packers Life from Lombardi to Canton," offers new ones as well.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame, Lombardi-era guard co-authored the book with longtime Packers writer Bob Fox, and it includes 28 vignettes on Packers players, such as Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Max McGee, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis and more. Like Coach Vince Lombardi, character, not color, was how Kramer judged people.
Kramer is in Green Bay and Milwaukee through this week. He will be on Clubhouse Live, streaming on Facebook, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, and have a book signing from 2-3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Packers Pro Shop. He will be at the Detroit Lions game Thursday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and on Friday, he'll do a Q&A at No Studios, 1047 W. McKinley Ave., Milwaukee, and afterward have a book signing across the street at Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery.
Kramer made the most of his fame when the Packers were winning NFL championships and Super Bowls in the late 1960s. He golfed with Dean Martin, became friends with George C. Scott, and had Johnny Carson ask for a personalized autograph on his copy of "Run to Daylight." He mentions several times during an interview how cocky he was then, sounding somewhat surprised about that younger guy.
"I was bulletproof at the time," he said.
He even insulted Frank Sinatra. He was having dinner with poet Rod McKuen, who invited him to come along to watch Sinatra record a bunch of McKuen songs, including "Two Can Dream a Dream Together."
"He was really hitting that 'Two Can Dream a Dream Together' line," Kramer said in a recent interview. "I said 'Frank, you are beating the hell out of that song. That is a beautiful thought.' I said, 'You ought to lighten up.' He reached out a hand and made circular motion in front of my face and erased me. That might have been after the first Super Bowl, when I was feeling powerful."
Later, he thought about how dumb that was. It wasn't a total break. Kramer was invited to play in several Sinatra golf tournaments, during which Sinatra shook his hand.
The book includes many such off-the-field stories, "Those kind of things that didn’t have any 'On two' in them, any 'huts,'" he said. But there are some of those stories, too.
"There are a lot of stories in there off the football field. The kind of things I got a kick out of and had a lot of fun doing," Kramer said. "I enjoyed doing it, remembering those times and enjoying them. It was such a kick in the pants."
One of the better ones includes an encounter with Baltimore Colts rookie Bubba Smith in the 1967 College All-Star game. Smith was a highly regarded rookie who went on to successful football and acting careers, and who had his own level of cockiness.
Kramer said he woke up on the day of the game in Chicago and on the back page of the Chicago Tribune was a full-page ad that invited fans to come see "Bubba kill Bart," Packers quarterback Bart Starr. Smith was big — 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, more or less — which couldn't be missed, but he caught Kramer off guard with his quickness.
"I didn’t expect him to be quick. He got by me and got Bart (Starr) and was laying on Bart and said, 'all night long old man.'"
They got back to the huddle and Starr looked at Kramer and said, "call a play." Kramer was shocked. He hadn't even done that in junior high, but he said, "Let's trap him, let (guard) Fuzzy (Thurston) get him."
Kramer called the next six or seven plays, running the whole Packers line, made up of several future Pro Football Hall of Famers, at Smith. Forrest Gregg, Ken Bowman, Thurston, Gale Gillingham; all got shots at Smith."We brought (tackle) Forrest (Gregg) down on him, then double teamed him, gaining six or seven yards every play," Kramer said.
After that, Smith was tapping his helmet, signaling he wanted to come out of the game.
"I don’t remember him being back in," Kramer said.
There's also the controversy about whether Starr told the team what he was going to do on the play that won the Ice Bowl. Kramer said for years that Starr said in the huddle, "31 wedge and I'll keep the ball." Other Packers on the field that day said they never heard Starr say that. The play was not designed for Starr to keep the ball and nine of the eleven Packers on the field didn't know that was coming.
When Fox and Kramer talked about that moment, Kramer recalled that Starr asked him separately if he could still make the 31 wedge block, considering the icy footing on the field. Kramer assured him he could. Fox theorizes that might have been when Starr said he'd keep the ball and Kramer agrees that's possible.
"Jerry said everything was going so quickly at the time, that may have been where Jerry heard Bart was going to carry it himself," Fox said.
The book is a departure from Kramer's previous first-person books, which he co-authored with Dick Schaap. "Run to Win" is a traditional third-person narrative in which Fox uses a straightforward writing style. The chapters are short and easy to read.
Milwaukee native Fox, who wrote for Packer Report and Bleacher Report, was a supervising producer on the documentary, "You Can if You Will: The Jerry Kramer Story,"
"I had written so many articles on Jerry going back to when I worked for Packer Report," Fox said. "Jerry said, 'with all these articles you’ve done, you could write a book.'" So they did.
Kramer has particularly warm words for teammates Willie Davis, his roommate for one year and one of his best friends as long as he lived, and Don Chandler, who he credits with helping save his career when he was recovering from a series of intestinal surgeries. Kramer and Davis were the second black/white roommates in the NFL, after Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo of the Chicago Bears.
He also writes about the five best defensive tackles he faced, including Merlin Olsen of the Los Angeles Rams, Alex Karras of the Detroit Lions (both became successful actors), Leo Nomellini of the San Francisco 49ers, Art Donovan of the Baltimore Colts, and Charlie Krueger, also of the 49ers. All are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame except Krueger.
After his retirement, Kramer was approached by the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings to play for them, and by a Hollywood producer to star in a film that became, with another actor, one of the biggest hits of its year; stories he tells best.
More recently, Kramer has supported various charitable organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Door County, the National Child Identification Program and Never Forgotten Honor Flight. He played in countless fundraising golf outings before his legs wouldn't allow him to do it anymore.
Kramer, who is 87 years old, no doubt has many other stories he hasn't told, but for this book he's chosen the ones where, if there's anything to be critical about, it's usually self-criticism, although two former Packers coaches don't escape censure. The only discordant note with teammates is the falling out he had with longtime roommate Jim Taylor after they retired, but he's fair and appreciative of Taylor's football abilities throughout the book.
The book ends with the story of Kramer's famously long-delayed election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, another story he tells best.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jerry Kramer's reveals some new Packers stories in book 'Run to Win'
