Longtime Pitt football administrator Alex Kramer has passed away at the age of 91, the program announced on Wednesday.
Kramer was named an Awardee of Distinction by the Pitt Varsity Letter Club in 1997 and was twice a part of the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame Selection Committee.
He served as director of operations for five coaches, beginning with Jackie Sherrill in 1978, and served in that capacity through his retirement in 1995. In that time, Kramer oversaw the team’s daily schedule, organized travel and led the program’s commute service efforts.
“Alex Kramer is a true Pitt gem,” athletic director Heather Lyke said. “He proudly represented the University of Pittsburgh as an alumnus, administrator and, of course, as a lifelong Panthers fan. I’ll be forever appreciative of his support and contributions as we launched the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame. His knowledge of the University was surpassed only by his love for it. I was very blessed to get to know him the past three years. Our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones.”
Kramer grew up a Pitt fan, idolizing the teams of Jock Sutherland in the 1930s and was a student manager while attending the school from 1948-51. After that, he served in the United States Air Force and was a teacher and administrator in the Moon Area School District and earned a master’s in history from Pitt in 1961 before returning to the school in 1978.
“Alex truly represented what it means to be a Pitt Man,” head football coach Pat Narduzzi said. “He was incredibly passionate about his University. Alex loved the football program like family, and the many coaches and players he touched felt the same way about him. I’ll never forget our dinners together at the annual Pitt Football Alumni Golf Outing, which he never missed. The Kramer family will be on our hearts and in our prayers.”
In later years, Kramer was the team’s unofficial historian, with his deep ties to the roots of the program, and was also a part of the efforts to restore Sutherland’s gravesite in Homewood in 2018.
