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Jack Roland Kramer:
Passion,
courage deserve respect Jack
Kramer, founder of The Courts
and supporter of youth sports, dies at age
41
SPRINGFIELD
NEWSLEADER— A true inspiration, a man
who not only exemplified courage, but what
passion for youth sports is all about, died
Saturday evening at age 41.
Many of you may not know
Jack Kramer by name, but surely you noticed
him if you passed through The Courts, since
the time the plush, three-court basketball
facility off E. Kearney opened three years
ago.
Because Jack was always
there. Even after he sold it a year ago, he
still came around, all the time, to his home
away from home.
Why? For Jack, it's where
the kids were. And not just his kids. Any
kids. In fact, Springfield might never again
come across an individual more in love with
youth sports than Jack Kramer.
Never mind that ALS, or
Lou Gehrig's Disease, had left Jack a physical
shell of what was once a 6-foot-2, 275-pound
football star for Missouri, and now presented
what had become a 140-pound man with immense
daily challenges you and I take for granted.
Jack was going to make it there. Shuffling
his feet to move back and forth across the
three gym floors at The Courts, he seemingly
always offered a smile — especially for
the little folks.
Unknowingly, he also was
providing a living example for them, proof
that any challenge they might encounter in
sports, or life, can be met head-on through
a strong spirit and bold determination.
"That's the thing I'll
remember most about Jack, that he never gave
up," said Chris Coskey, Kramer's friend
and director of The Courts. "He was sick
and he knew it, but he never gave up, and
he didn't want people to feel sorry for him."
"He was a fighter."
ALS is the cruelest and
most senseless disease there is. While those
afflicted still function normally in their
minds, their bodies rapidly deteriorate. Typically,
those with ALS are given two to five years
to live after diagnosis.
In that regard, Jack was
a definite rarity. He lived somewhere around
eight years with the disease, and probably
would have gone on a few dozen more had he
not slipped off a raft and drowned Saturday,
shortly after partaking in one of his favorite
hobbies — floating lazily in the shallow
end while listening to St. Louis Cardinals
games on the radio.
The way he died was yet
another example of Jack refusing to allow
ALS alter his lifestyle. It didn't matter
to Jack that he had virtually no use of his
arms or hands and was prone to falling on
occasion, with nothing to break it except
his head. He was going on with life as usual.
He was a regular at Springfield
Quarterback and Tipoff Club luncheons to hear
the city coaches talk about their young athletes.
He loved the college programs, helping start
the popular Summer Pro-Am League for players,
past and present, from all local university
teams.
An offensive lineman for
three Tigers' teams that went to bowl games
(1980-83), Jack lived and breathed Mizzou
football. In fact, his wish was to have his
body cremated and the ashes spread across
the turf at Faurot Field. He was a big SMS
fan, too, having attended the annual Athletics
Auction on Friday night at University Plaza.
Clearly, sports was his
life. And in all those years, Jack made the
lives of hundreds of young athletes so enjoyable,
both as a coach of several teams and a provider
of a wonderful place to play.
"Jack was always smiling,
because (The Courts) was something for the
kids," Coskey said. "When some team
would do well at state, or an AAU team did
well, he kind of knew he had a hand in that.
And that made him feel really good."
Jack built The Courts as
a tribute to his only son, Kyle, who was killed
in a auto accident in 1997 at age 11 as the
family was returning home from a Mizzou football
game.
While Jack and wife Susan
had three athletic daughters who all got a
taste of Dad the coach growing up, the bond
between father and son was unique. There wasn't
a sport Kyle played that Jack wasn't heavily
involved in, be it basketball, baseball or
Mighty Mites football.
In fact, the day Jack was
released from the hospital after the accident
that killed his son, his first request was
to return to the Mighty Mites field at Smith
Park and watch Kyle's old team practice.
"Kids are everything
to me," Jack said back then.
So when Jack received an
insurance settlement after the accident, there
was only one place that the money was headed
— back into youth sports through The
Courts.
"That was his home
away from home, where he felt he belonged,"
said Kramer's sister-in-law, Jill Brents.
"Number one, because he just felt it
was still in tribute to Kyle, but also because
he just loves kids. He loved the sports, the
atmosphere, the noise, the smell, the competitiveness.
He loved it all. He expressed to me one time
that sports gives kids confidence in themselves
... and that's something as we grow older,
helps us get through the worst of times."
Drive by the facility on
any winter night and you'll find a parking
lot filled with cars as up to 220 teams participate
in basketball leagues during the two-month
sessions.
A picture of a handsome,
smiling Kyle rests on a wall just inside the
gym doors, where hundreds of basketball players,
parents and coaches pass by on a nightly basis.
It's a shrine of sorts to
a life cut tragically short. And next to it
now should be placed a picture of Jack.
Not only as a reminder of
the man who made so many hoops dreams possible
for young kids, and who will forever be remembered
for the admirable was he battled his illness.
But also because that's
just where Jack would want to be — right
next to his son, again.
SPRINGFIELD
NEWSLEADER— A true inspiration, a man
who not only exemplified courage, but what
passion for youth sports is all about, died
Saturday evening at age 41.
