FRANK  KRAMER

HAPPY 125 YEARS!

BORN - SEPTEMBER 15, 1880

(or November 20, 1880 depending on what source you look at)

Feared that Frank Kramer might have tuberculosis in his early teens, his parents bought him a bicycle for exercise and later sent him to live with friends in East Orange, NJ, for the sea air. He began racing when he was fifteen and won the League of American Wheelmen's national sprint championship in 1898. The following year, he won the National Cycling Association title.

Major Taylor persuaded Kramer to turn professional in 1900. Ironically, Taylor beat Kramer in the finals of the national sprint championship that year, but Kramer went on to win the title sixteen years in a row. After losing in 1917, he switched to a larger gear and won the championship again in 1918 and 1921. He also won the world championship the only time he entered, in 1912, when it was held in Newark.

By 1905, Kramer had become so well-known that he was invited to race in Europe. He subsequently made three other European tours, winning 50 of 62 races, including two victories in the Grand Prix de Paris. He further enhanced his international reputation in 1908, when Australian champion Jackie Clark came to the United States specifically to test Kramer. In the national championships at Madison Square Garden, Kramer beat Clark in both the 1/2-mile and 1-mile sprints.

Kramer studied and trained assiduously. He went to bed so punctually at 9 p.m. that his neighbors set their clocks when he turned off his bedroom light. The stress of racing finally caught up to him 1922, when he began suffering from insomnia. In his last appearance, he tied the world record of 15.4 seconds in the 1/6-mile time trial in front of more than 20,000 cheering fans at the Newark Velodrome.

Kramer remained active in cycling as a referee until 1937 and he also held various positions with the National Cycling Association. Two years before his death in 1958, he handed out the prizes at the Tour of Somerville.