Tommy Kramer

Tommy Kramer made his football reputation throwing the ball both accurately and often. It began with the Robert E. Lee High School Volunteers in 1971, continued with record-setting seasons at Rice University and culminated with 13 seasons of National Football League play with the Minnesota Vikings.​

He directed an underdog Lee team to the Texas State Championship in 1971, passing for 257 yards and 3 touchdowns in the 28-27 win over Wichita Falls. In 1972 he led Lee to the state semi-finals and was named Texas State Player of the Year. In two seasons he had thrown for 5489 yards and 54 touchdowns. At Rice, Kramer led the NCAA in passing in 1976 with 3,317 yards and was the NCAA total offense leader with 297 yards per game. He still holds school records for 409 single game passing yards and for career total offense yards. with 6,336.

Kramer was named MVP in both the Blue-Gray and Senior Bowl games before being the Vikings’ first draft pick in 1977. He became Minnesota’s second most productive passer in team history with 24,775 yards and 159 touchdowns. His 490 single game yards are still a club record and four times he passed for more than 400 yards. He surpassed 3,000 season yards five times. He finished his career with the New Orleans Saints, retiring in 1990.