The Front Row with ERIC PLUMMER Jan. 2, 2011

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Chris Hanburger or Les Richter?

For the non-football historians out there with their hands down, they're a pair of former NFL linebackers picked by the NFL Hall of Fame's Senior Selection Committee to be included on the ballot for enshrinement in the class of 2011.

Hanburger played for the Redskins from 1965-78 and was named to the All-Pro team four times, while Richter played for the Rams from 1954-62, earning two All-Pro nods.

Great players, no doubt, but with all due respect, are they more deserving of a bust in Canton, Ohio, than Green Bay Packers legendary offensive lineman Jerry Kramer?

It's high time the 44 Hall of Fame voters - in particular the nine who comprise the Senior Selection Committee, which appoints nominees who have been retired for at least 25 years - come to their senses and elect a player that should have been honored many moons ago.

The classy Kramer will only say the game has been too good to him to harbor any resentment, and that if he has to do any politicking or pulling strings, maybe he doesn't deserve the honor.

Hogwash. He damn sure does.

The Bonner County Daily Bee, from Kramer's hometown of Sandpoint, has decided to join a slowly-rising groundswell of support to hopefully end what is fast beginning to feel like an injustice.

How is it that Kramer is the lone member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary team not in the Hall of Fame?

How is it that a key contributor on a team that won five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls is not among most of his teammates in Canton?

How is it that a player named to the 1960's All-Decade team and a five-time All-Pro guard has slipped the voters' attention?

How can a player who made "the block" in the "Ice Bowl," arguably the greatest game ever played, who was the lead blocker on the "Packer sweep," arguably the most famous play in NFL history, who once led the NFL in field goal kicking percentage back when kickers were still position players, and who is a key historical figure from the Golden Age of football, not deemed worthy of even getting his name on the Hall of Fame ballot?

If you'd like to make your voice heard on the matter, find out how at the end of this column.

Kramer starred at Sandpoint High School for former Bulldog and Viking coaching great Cotton Barlow. From there he headed south and starred as a guard/kicker for the University of Idaho, where the 6-3, 250 pound athletic lineman caught the attention of the Green Bay Packers, who used the 39th pick in the 1958 NFL draft on Kramer.

Honest, humorous, straight forward and extremely charismatic, Kramer is about as good a public speaker as one will ever hear. At a fundraiser for the Sandpoint Senior Center last year, Kramer regaled the crowd with stories like only he can, sharing some funny stories about Packers coach Vince Lombardi and teammates like Paul Hornung.

He told a story about how Coeur d'Alene High School once charged the Sandpoint band to get into a game back in the early 1950's, and how an irate Barlow successfully used it to fire the Bulldogs up for a decisive victory.

He told another story about how training camps were usually to whip players into shape and help offensive linemen to drop some unwanted pounds and reach their ideal playing weight. But after a hard summer of logging in Sandpoint, a light and sculpted Kramer had to use training camp at the University of Idaho to put on weight for the season.

One can only imagine the captive, home-spun and iconic tales he could share if ever given the chance for a Hall of Fame acceptance speech.

Last week the Daily Bee began soliciting reasons from readers why Kramer should be inducted in Canton. Below is a smattering of excerpts from some of the responses.

Bill Currie, who graduated from Sandpoint in 1960 and went on to plan his sales trips around Packer games, used to stay with Kramer in Green Bay and got to hang out with some of Packer players of the era.

"That's still a thrill and an incredible memory from those days," recalled Currie, who once owned the Panida Threater and is still on the ski patrol at Schweitzer. "Those times were about as cool as cool can get."

Daryl Hagemann, currently in the U.S. Navy in Oak Harbor, Wash., debunked the hollow explanation that there are already too many Packers - 11 to be exact - from that era already enshrined.

"Touting that there are already too many players from that era of Packer All-Stars in the Hall is a joke," wrote Hagemann. "I am sure if coach Lombardi were around he would be in Jerry Kramer's corner for an absolute, unquestionable induction into the Hall of Fame and that would have happened a long time ago."

Former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer, like many, thought Kramer was already in the Hall of Fame.

"I assumed that Jerry Kramer already had a bust sitting in Canton. Maybe there are countless others making this same assumption, thus keeping Jerry Kramer from finally joining the other great players," wrote Plummer in his submission to the paper. "It's time that one of the classiest legends of the game finally be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. You have my vote Jerry!"

And Sandpoint's Tye Barlow expressed what many others feel.

"Let's rally together and get Jerry Kramer into the Hall of Fame while he still has time to enjoy it," wrote Barlow.

Do you share any of the aforementioned feelings about Kramer? What would you like to say to the selection committee, if given the chance? Do you want to make your voice heard?

If so, please e-mail your reasons to "eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com." Each submission will be numbered and printed in the Daily Bee in the order they are received, then compiled on a master list and emailed to each of the 44 Hall of Fame voters for future consideration. The final list of reasons will also be printed on paper and mailed in an envelope to the nine members of the Senior Selection Committee, urging Kramer's inclusion on the 2012 ballot.

Happy New Year.

Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. For comments, story ideas or suggestions, he can be reached at "eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com," or by phone at (208) 263-9534, ext. 226.