Kramer Left More Than the Cowboys in Disarray : Pro football: Chuck Ferrero of Valley College remembers when Detroit quarterback also picked apart his team’s defense.

As Chuck Ferrero sat and watched Erik Kramer and the Detroit Lions dismantle the Dallas Cowboys, 38-6, in the National Football League playoffs last Sunday, he felt more than seven years’ worth of guilt being lifted from his shoulders.

By the time Ferrero arrived Monday at his job as Valley College athletic director, he was feeling pretty good.

On his way in, he spotted Dave Buchanan, an assistant football coach at Valley.

“Hey, Dave, we don’t have to feel bad about ’84 anymore,” Ferrero chirped. “We’re in good company. What Kramer did to us in the second half, he did to Dallas for four quarters!”

What Kramer did was systematically pick apart the Cowboys to the tune of 341 yards and three touchdowns, completing 29 of 38 passes to move the Lions to the brink of their first Super Bowl appearance.

Ferrero had seen a similar act. Back in 1984, when he was Valley’s football coach, Ferrero guided the Monarchs to within a game of a junior college national championship showdown with Taft.

Blocking the Monarchs’ path was bitter cross-valley rival Pierce. In a game for the Western State Conference title, the score was tied, 10-10, at halftime.

The final: Pierce 52, Valley 10. In the second half alone, Kramer passed for almost 300 yards.

“He killed us,” Ferrero said, echoing comments similar to those of Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson after Sunday’s game.

But if there was a segment of the Detroit-Dallas game that Ferrero didn’t enjoy, it was the commentary from sports announcers and writers that followed.

“I get upset when people act like Kramer is some schmuck who just fell out of the stockpile and into the limelight,” Ferrero said. “He was a great junior college quarterback and then he was player of the year in the (Atlantic Coast Conference) against some pretty tough competition.”

With any luck, Valley might have received some credit for Kramer’s emergence had he decided to stay with the Monarchs after a handful of workouts with the team back in 1982.

“He was with us for about three days, but at the time we had three other quarterbacks,” Ferrero said.

So Kramer continued to shop around and ended up settling elsewhere.

At Pierce, Kramer spent his first year as a part-time student, with most of his studies taking place in the football team’s film room.

In 1983, he joined the Pierce team, playing in reserve behind Dave McLaughlin, the Brahmas’ starting quarterback.

The following season, Kramer led the Brahmas to a 10-1 record, its only loss coming against Taft in the Potato Bowl.

“I thought he had a chance to be real good, but who knew?” said Jim Fenwick, who then coached Pierce and now coaches at Valley. “It wasn’t like he was a great quarterback and we had to do a lot to get him.”

In fact, Kramer was a reserve signal-caller for Burroughs High, where he is remembered for the quickness of his release and the strength of his arm and especially for the fights he sparked among members of the coaching staff.

Kramer transferred to Burroughs from St. Genevieve High in 1981, just before his senior season, with hopes of becoming Bob Dunivant’s next passing prodigy.

Dunivant, who returned to coach at Burroughs last fall, had earned a reputation in the area high school community as the foremost authority in the passing game. And although Burroughs had a new head coach, George Rosales, currently an assistant at Ventura College, Dunivant still was on staff as the quarterback coach.

“We had been the place around here that threw the football,” Rosales said. “Erik wanted to get in on that.”

But Burroughs already had incumbent Rich Strasser, a two-year starter. Still, Kramer was talented enough to force an intense battle.

In Burroughs’ first four nonleague games, Kramer and Strasser split the starting assignment. Then, with league play set to begin, Rosales chose Strasser.

Dunivant had wanted Kramer.

The quarterback debate between the coaches raged behind closed doors.

“We had some real interesting conversations about it,” Dunivant understated this week.

“We did argue a lot,” Rosales said. “Damn right we did. But with due respect, of course. Bob understood that as head coach it was my call, and at the time, 10 years ago, I thought Rich Strasser was the better quarterback.”

Based on results, it wasn’t a bad decision. Strasser, who later set passing records at San Francisco State, led Burroughs to the Southern Section Northwestern Conference championship game.

Kramer was moved into a starting slot in the Indians’ secondary and earned recognition as first-team all-league on defense.

However, that did nothing to quench Kramer’s desire to play quarterback, and he took that mission to the playing fields of local junior colleges, the same fields he still occasionally visits.

McLaughlin, who has remained close to his one-time understudy, said that Kramer has been known to show up at loosely organized flag-football games held by former Pierce teammates.

“I’m sure we’re all very excited to see him doing this,” McLaughlin said. “He’s on the doorstep of a dream we all had.”