For someone nicknamed "Zipper" by his teammates because of his many stitch marks and who had a history of freak and serious accidents dating to his childhood, Kramer's durability as a pro was remarkable in itself. In nine of 11 seasons, he didn't miss a game.

In 1961, he suffered an ankle injury on the first play of the seventh game against Minnesota, underwent surgery and didn't play again that season. Three years later, after playing in the first two games, despite losing 15 pounds in a matter of weeks, Kramer underwent two operations within 10 days to remove a mass near his abdomen, and also to try and cure a fungus infection that had been causing pain and fever. While Kramer missed the remaining 12 games, it wasn't until the following May that another operation revealed he had been living with three wooden slivers, two of them four inches long, in his groin since suffering a farm accident in high school. In 1960, Kramer had suffered a torn retina but waited until the season ended to have surgery.

Toughness wasn't the only intangible Kramer brought to the field. "A smart football player. He was a leader," said Red Cochran, Lombardi's offensive backfield coach from 1959 to 1966.

In 2018, Kramer was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 44 years after he was first eligible. Previously, he was a finalist in the voting 10 times, more than any player who had yet to be inducted. In 1969, Kramer was named the only guard on the NFL's 50th Anniversary Team.

"Jerry Kramer has the perfect devil-may-care attitude it takes to play this game," Lombardi wrote in his book, "Run to Daylight." "He not only ignores the small hurts, but the large ones, too, and the evidence of his indifference is all over his body… Two good guards are hard to come by, and, if Jerry has a weakness, it's that his pass blocking, although it isn't bad, isn't up to his blocking while leading plays. On the latter, he is great."

The Packers chose Kramer in the fourth round of the 1958 NFL draft. During the one-platoon era of college football, he had doubled as a guard on offense and a middle guard on defense at the University of Idaho.

As a rookie, Kramer took over as the starting right guard when veteran Jim Salsbury was benched following the fourth game and essentially held the position for the remainder of his career when healthy. In 11 seasons, Kramer played in 129 games.

Off the field, Kramer gained celebrity status by writing what were two of the most insightful sports books ever by a contemporary professional athlete, "Instant Replay" and "Farewell to Football." "Instant Replay" was a diary of the history-making 1967 season, Lombardi's last as the Packers' coach. Kramer was a CBS television analyst on NFL games in 1969.

Born Jan. 23, 1936, in Jordan, Mont. Given name Gerald Louis Kramer.