Kramer Recalls When UI-WSU Was Huge

Looking back on Vandals-Cougars rivalry

Jerry Kramer was in ideal position to intercept the pass. Alas, he was a nose guard and, he said, “nose guards aren’t programmed to intercept.”

So he batted the football to the ground at Rogers Field, precursor to Washington State University’s Martin Stadium.

“When I looked up, there wasn’t anything in front of me,” Kramer recalls of the play during the 1957 Idaho game against the Cougars. “I had visions of sugar plums, but I was programmed to destroy.”

Kramer would go on to become an NFL legend with the Green Bay Packers. Teammate Wayne Walker would eventually play in five Pro Bowls. They are perhaps the most decorated Vandals of all-time.

And they never tasted victory over rival Washington State.

They came agonizingly close from 1955-57, but WSU walked off the field with wins, 9-0 in ‘55, 33-19 in ‘56 and 21-13 in ‘57.

Kramer couldn’t play as a freshman, per NCAA rules, and he watched Idaho down WSU 10-0 in ‘54.

“We were close a couple times,” Kramer said. “There was such a rivalry between the schools. The win in ‘54 gave the whole program a boost.”

Kramer remembers needing a boost during the games. He played nose guard on defense and guard on the offensive line.

“The second half was so tough for us,” said Kramer, whose son, Jordan, starts at safety as the Vandals take on WSU today. “We played 60 minutes, Wayne and I and the whole starting lineup. We never left the field.

“That’s what I remember most, losing 10-12 pounds and I didn’t have that much to lose. And you couldn’t drink afterward because you couldn’t keep it in your stomach.”

Kramer, who checked in at 225 pounds, doesn’t recall if WSU players worked both sides of the ball, “but I know we played Washington a few times and they’d run about three sets of players in.”

The games against WSU were short on victories, but not validation.

“Wayne and I had no idea how good we were,” said Kramer, who lives in Boise and is involved in a nutritional products business based in Kansas. “I was a small-town kid (from Sandpoint). You didn’t know how good you were until you played in the big games.”

UI-WSU always fit that bill.

“We wanted that game in ‘57 awfully bad,” Kramer said. “We put on some great ballgames and great efforts, which we seemed to do so many times, but it was just a little short.”