Fans can join Legends in charity work Vince Lombardi Titletown Legends team member Jerry Kramer unveils a new membership fundraising program during a news conference Wednesday (photo by H. Marc Larson). The former Packers' players continue their charitable work By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle They still are asked for autographs, and not only in Green Bay. The Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi coached in the 1960s still have an aura for their fans, says the star right guard on those teams, Jerry Kramer, that is hard to define. But he runs into it all the time. "I was down in Tennessee with my son and several different people came up to say hello," he said during a visit to Green Bay on Wednesday. "I said 'how did you get to be Green Bay Packer fans down here?' 'Well Jerry,' they said, 'we used to get all the Packer games before we had a team.'" He admitted he didn't understand it, but he's grateful. "Sometimes, you feel a little odd signing autographs at this age and stage of your life when maybe you ought to be in a care center somewhere," he laughed. And Kramer and his former teammates and friends are using that to the advantage to a lot of people. Their group, the Vince Lombardi Titletown Legends, has put together several fund-raising efforts. On Wednesday, they distributed some of those funds to a variety of groups, from schools to drug treatment centers. And they announced a program to expand the Lombardi Legends to include fans. The membership program includes a variety of perks for various levels of contributions,. from special Lombardi pins, a members-only Web site and admission to special events to a personal letter signed by several former Packers greats and free copies of the Packer Report. "We've had some great events, raised a lot of funds, helped a lot of people and had a lot of fun," Kramer said. "It's a win-win situation." And a unique one. It's a testament both to Packers fans and their generosity and the lure of those championship teams, one that, after all these years, Kramer still doesn't fully understand. "I've often thought that possibly one answer to that was that it was kind of like Arnold Palmer and golf. When golf first came into your living room in color, Arnie was the guy, and everybody loves Arnie. And when football first came into your living room in color. So maybe that's the connection" He's even asked the boss of the most fan-savvy league of them all, the NFL. "I asked Commissioner (Paul) Tagliabue ... do you understand the psychological-sociological relationship between a fan and a team?" Kramer said. "He just said 'whoa, Jerry, we've spent a lot of time on that. We've really looked at that and no, we really don't understand it.' So I went right to the top." But he knows how supportive they've been, and he's happy to welcome them along to help. "They've always been a big part of our life. Without them, there's no Green Bay Packers, there's no legends, there's no anything," he said. Among the groups the Legends have helped are Prevent Blindness of Wisconsin, Libertas Treatment Center, Options for Independent Living, the Boys and Girls Club of Green Bay, Urban Hope, Junior Achievement of Brown County, the Crime Prevention Foundation of Brown County and the Jackie Nitschke Center. Details on the program are at www.lombardilegends.com or can be obtained by calling 499-7138.