Idaho's best football players

As a kid I remember rooting for Idaho when they played the Cougars.

It was great in both 1999 and 2000 when the Vandals won.  In 1999, Idaho won 28-17, and in 2000, 38-34.

They had a great tradition: the losing cheer squad had to walk from Pullman to Moscow, about nine miles. Needless to say that the Vandal cheer squad over the years got very familiar with the scenes between the two towns.

Later it was great football when Jerry Kramer and Wayne Walker played for the Vandals.

The two had great careers at Idaho and were drafted in the fourth round in 1958, with Kramer going to Green Bay and Walker going to the Detroit Lions.

I watched their pro careers from afar, at the time with the Idaho Statesman, the Boise paper. Walker was a Boise lad, who did great things at Boise High, and Kramer was from Sandpoint.

My boss, Jim Brown, was a huge promoter of Idaho sports. Even though the Vandals weren’t doing well in football.

I met Idaho head coach Skip Stahley twice when he came to the Statesman to get Brown to write a big check for Vandal football.

That was how funding was done in those days.

Whenever Detroit or Green Bay were playing, Brown was at the teletype following the game, always checking to see how I was playing the games in the paper.

He was a staunch supporter of Idaho sports programs and players.

A few years later, I had returned to the Boise Valley after being away a couple of years. I was still keeping track of Kramer and Walker.

The church I was attending had planned an auction to purchase equipment, so I wrote to Kramer about it and Jerry sent me a football signed by all the coaches and players.

The ball had a slow start at the auction so I started bidding and with money I didn’t have I bought the ball. I had it all these years and recently gave it to a friend.

Kramer distinguished himself at Green Bay, and just a few years ago, on his last ballot attempt, was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Kramer is alive and well, living in Sandpoint.

Walker died a few years ago from the ravages of Parkinson’s disease.

Walker didn’t make it into the NFL Hall of Fame but as a player distinguished himself in many other football ways.

The two were probably Idaho’s most outstanding football players.