Kory Schramm, a former star football player for Aquinas Institute and Hartwick College, died suddenly July 16, 2004, in Athens, Greece. He was 23 years old.
Mr. Schramm, a Rochester native, grew up in Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart parishes. At Aquinas he played for the 1998 state-championship football team, excelling at the wide receiver and cornerback positions.
After graduating from Aquinas in 1999, Mr. Schramm moved on to Hartwick, an NCAA Division III college. As a defensive back he attained All-American honors three times — and, with 25 career interceptions, he shattered the previous school record of 12. He graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in business management, and was then hired full time as an assistant football coach at Hartwick.
He had traveled to Athens to work a paid internship for the Summer Olympics. According to his father, Kurt Schramm, Mr. Schramm was walking across a street late at night when he was struck by an oncoming car. He died at the scene.
Kurt Schramm said his son’s short life was marked by a deep love for athletics.
“He was just having so much fun, he always had a smile on his face. He always had the spark, always had the spring in his step,” Kurt Schramm said. “Everybody loved him — he was a little short on the height spectrum, but that made everyone love him even more.”
Mr. Schramm stood 5 feet, 4 inches, but his father said his tenacity compensated for lack of height. “If I was going to pick one word, it was ‘focus.’ Whatever he needed to do, or wanted to get done, he would get focused — you could see it in his eyes through his football helmet,” Kurt Schramm said.
Mr. Schramm’s funeral Mass took place July 23, 2004, at St. John the Evangelist Church in Greece. Interment was at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
He is survived by his parents, Kurt and Wendy; brother, Kristopher; sister, Karlee; nephew, Justin; maternal grandparents, Josephine and Herman Camp; and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Memorial donations may be made to the Aquinas Institute Kory Schramm Scholarship Fund, 1127 Dewey Ave., Rochester, NY 14613, or Hartwick College Football, 1 Hartwick Dr., Oneonta, NY 13820.
