Gold Jacket Spotlight: Five-Time Champ Jerry Kramer

In the 1960s, the National Football League’s spotlight shined brightest on the Green Bay Packers.

Under legendary coach Vince Lombardi, the Packers won five NFL titles in the decade, becoming the first – and still only – team to win championships over three consecutive seasons (1965-67) since the implementation of the league’s playoff system in 1933.

Along for each of those wild rides was guard Jerry Kramer, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018 and a player comfortable in the spotlight in his own right.

This week, Jerry’s career becomes the focus of the Hall’s Gold Jacket Spotlight.

Jerry’s diary of the 1967 season, “Instant Replay,” took readers behind the scenes as Lombardi drove (and drove and drove) his players to a divisional crown and three victories in the playoffs. The season culminated in a 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II and with Lombardi riding off the field on Jerry’s right shoulder.

In the NFL Championship Game two weeks earlier, Jerry’s block at the goal line gave quarterback Bart Starr enough room to slip behind him for the winning score in the final seconds of the famous “Ice Bowl” against the Dallas Cowboys.

Jerry played 130 games at guard for the Packers, his No. 64 becoming iconic in leading running backs around the corner on the famous Lombardi sweeps. He also served as the team’s placekicker for a few seasons.

In 1962, he made nine field goals in 11 attempts as a replacement for the injured Paul Hornung, then kicked three field goals and an extra point in the title game at Yankee Stadium in 40 mph winds as the Packers beat the New York Giants 16-7. The following season, he led the NFL with 91 points.

At the time of his retirement in 1968, Jerry held the NFL Championship Game record for most field goal attempts in a game (five against the Giants) and the Packers’ team record for most PATs in a season with 43 in 1963.

Jerry earned First-Team All-Pro acclaim five times (1960, 1962-63, 1966-67) and was voted to three Pro Bowls. He was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1960s, the NFL’s 50th Anniversary Team in 1969 – he was the only guard chosen for the first team – and the Super Bowl Silver Anniversary Team.

Looking back on his football career a few years ago, Jerry told a reporter in his home state of Idaho that nearly a half-century of time hadn’t faded the special memories of his 11 seasons with the Packers.

“The fact that I got to be in Green Bay when Coach Lombardi was there was just a sensational opportunity for me and all the other things kind of came from the association with Green Bay,” he said. “It's been such a wonderful ride. It's been a great experience and it keeps on keeping on.”

This week, it “keeps on” under the glow of the Gold Jacket Spotlight.