Frank Ramos, longtime Jets public relations director from Long Island, dies at age 87
Frank Ramos, left, with former Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau at training camp at Hofstra in 2001. Credit: Newsday/Kathy Kmonicek
Frank Ramos, the Long Islander who became one of the most respected and beloved behind-the-scenes members of the Jets organization as the head of the public relations department for 39 years, seeing them through Super Bowl III and all the ups and downs that followed, died in South Florida on Tuesday of complications from pneumonia. He was 87.
Ramos’ career in the NFL began as the Jets began, in 1963.
“I’m heartbroken,” Joe Namath said in a statement through the Jets. “He was with me since Day One. He was special, a special friend, a special teammate if you will, a friend for so many . . . He was a pioneer in his profession.”
“Frank Ramos was a Jets and NFL legend,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who interned for Ramos in 1983, said in a statement. “In his nearly 40 years with the team he was a trusted confidant of players, coaches and executives — and he never missed a game.”
Ramos was instrumental in creating the buzz around the New York Sack Exchange defensive line in the 1980s. He helped guide the team through Dennis Byrd’s neck injury, creating a template for teams to use in future medical crises. He was a member of the NFL’s Super Bowl public relations crew each year of his career.
But being part of the 1968 Jets team that beat the Colts in Super Bowl III after Namath guaranteed a victory was always the highlight for him.
“The pride that he had, he had it on his ring finger,” Marty Lyons said of Ramos’ championship jewelry. “You never saw Frank — whether at a casual dinner, whether it was at a bar, seeing him walking around the complex — without it. He always had that ring on and that ring meant the world to him.”
Ramos was born in Valley Stream in 1938, but his family moved to Florida when he was young. He attended Florida State and began his career as a writer for the Miami News and Atlanta Constitution. In 1961, he became the assistant sports information director at West Point. In 1963, he followed Joe Cahill to the newly formed Jets, which brought him back to Long Island. The team’s headquarters at Hofstra were about 10 minutes from where he had spent part of his childhood.
“Frank had an encyclopedic knowledge of this organization — he remembered everything, big and small, about every player and every employee who came through the building,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said in a statement. “Whenever you talked to Frank you felt like you were getting the true pulse of the Jets. He even gave me the Jets’ Super Bowl III playbook, which I still treasure. Frank was the glue that held this place together.”
Ramos retired in 2002. In 2024, he was honored with an Award of Excellence at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ramos is survived by his wife, Jackie.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
