Team History: Vikings went to four Super Bowls in an eight-year span
Team History: Vikings went to four Super Bowls in an eight-year span
Professional football in the state of Minnesota long predated the founding of the Vikings. The Minneapolis Marines were a successful semi-pro team before joining the American Professional Football Association for its second season in 1921.
The Marines went 4-17-2 and folded after an 0-6 record in 1924. The team resurfaced as the Red Jackets in 1929 under former Marines owners John Dunn and Val Ness. After stumbling to a 2-16-1 mark in two seasons, the club merged with the Frankford Yellow Jackets, sold 10 players to Frankfort then ceased operations.
Another early team that called the North Star State home was the Duluth Eskimos, which began as the Kelleys in 1923. The team played three seasons before losing their sponsorship with the Kelley-Duluth Hardware store. Owner Ole Haugsrud signed star running back Ernie Nevers and changed the club’s name to Eskimos.
The team played on the road, joining the Los Angeles Buccaneers, Louisville Colonels and Buffalo Rangers as traveling teams that helped the NFL gain popularity around the U.S. Haugsrud sold the team rights back to the league after two seasons with the promise that he would be given a chance to own a stake in any future teams in Minnesota. He passed on the Red Jackets and his next chance wouldn’t come for nearly 30 years.
In August 1959, businessmen Max Winter, Bill Boyer, and H. P. Skoglund were awarded a franchise in the upstart American Football League. Winter owned a restaurant and was a part-owner of the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team. He had tried unsuccessfully in the past to get an NFL team.
When the senior league had an open spot for the 1961 season, the group gave up its rights (which were then passed on to Oakland) and became the Minnesota Vikings, the NFL’s 14th franchise. Winter and his partners were joined by Bernard Ridder, Jr., and Haugsrud, who was given a 10 percent stake in the team.
The Vikings named Norm Van Brocklin, a nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback with the Rams and Eagles, as their first head coach. Van Brocklin felt Philadelphia reneged on a contract to make him coach after he retired as a player and Buck Shaw retired as a coach.
Minnesota struggled, going 3-11 as an expansion team, but there was one major bright spot. Rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton relieved George Shaw in the first game and threw four touchdown passes to lead his team to a 37-13 win over the Bears.
Despite solid play from Tarkenton, running backs Tommy Mason and Bill Brown, and star center Mick Tingelhoff, the Vikings did not make the playoffs in Van Brocklin’s six-year tenure. The closest they came was an 8-5-1 record and a second-place finish in 1964.
Van Brocklin left abruptly in the early part of 1967 and he was replaced by Harry “Bud” Grant, a former professional basketball player who won four titles in 10 seasons as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League. The Vikings had tried to lure Grant away to be the first coach of the team, but he turned them down.
After a 3-8-3 record in Grant’s first season, Minnesota won the Central Division 11 times in 13 years. The Vikings went 8-6 in 1968 before losing to the 13-1 Baltimore Colts.
Minnesota had the best record in the NFL at 12-2 the following year, then knocked off the Rams and Browns in the playoffs to reach Super Bowl IV. The Chiefs forced five turnovers, and a Dave Osborn run was the only Vikings score in a 23-7 Kansas City win.
Despite double-digit wins the next two seasons, the Vikings bowed out in the Division round and then missed the playoffs in 1972. Tarkenton came back after five years with the Giants and the team returned to the title picture. A 12-2 regular season was followed by wins over the Redskins and Cowboys. A Tarkenton run was the only score as Minnesota fell to the Miami Dolphins, 24-7, in Super Bowl VII.
Tarkenton and running back Chuck Foreman led the offense and tackle Alan Page and safety Paul Krause starred on the “Purple People Eater” defense. The Vikings posted a 10-4 mark in 1974, and the team returned to the Super Bowl.
However, much like their previous two appearances, points did not come easy for Minnesota. The “Steel Curtain” came down, holding the Vikings to 119 yards in a 16-6 Pittsburgh win. The only Minnesota score occurred when Terry Brown recovered a blocked punt in the end zone.
The Vikings squandered a 12-2 record the following year, giving up a lead to the Cowboys in the Division round. In 1976, Tarkenton, Foreman, and receiver Sammy White led the team to its fourth Super Bowl in eight seasons.
Oakland scored the first 19 points in Super Bowl XI and the Raiders went on to win, 32-14. White and tight end Stu Voigt caught touchdowns passes for the Vikings.
Minnesota went to the playoffs four more times under Grant. The team went 9-5 and defeated the Rams before falling to the Cowboys in the 1977 NFC Championship Game. The Vikings failed to get past the Division round again and Grant retired in 1983. He returned for the 1985 season, but left for good after a 7-9 mark.
Grant ended his 18-year NFL career with a 158-96-5 record and he was the first coach to lead a team to four Super Bowls. Jerry Burns, the offensive coordinator under Grant since 1968, took over as head coach. Before joining the Vikings, Burns was as an assistant with the Packers, during which time Green Bay won the first two Super Bowls.
Winter sold his share of the team to investor and entrepreneur Irwin L. Jacobs and Twins owner Carl Pohlad in 1985. The other owners were shocked and attempted to stop the sale, but the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Winter’s favor. Winter stayed on as team president and served on the board of directors for another four years.
The Vikings had their best season in a decade in 1987. The league lost one week due to a player’s strike and used replacement players for three other games. Minnesota went 0-3 with the stand-ins, but snuck into the playoffs with an 8-7 record overall.
Upset wins over the Saints (12-3) and 49ers (13-2) put the Vikings into the NFC Championship Game. The score was tied in the closing minutes when a Doug Williams 43-yard touchdown pass to Gary Clark with 5:06 left gave the Redskins the lead for good. Washington ended up winning, 17-10.
Minnesota lost in the Division round the next two years. General Manager Mike Lynn, who had been with the team for 17 years, traded away five players and eight draft picks to the Cowboys for All-Pro running back Herschel Walker. The picks turned into Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson and Russell Maryland, three stars from Dallas’ two Super Bowl wins, and Walker left as a free agent after 2½ years.
Lynn left in 1990 to become president of the World League of American Football, but returned the next year after the WLAF failed. He purchased the shares of Jacobs and Pohlad and joined new president Roger Headrick and Phillip Mars on the board of directors. Lynn’s 10 percent stake in the team was bought out by the other directors two months later.
Burns retired after the 1991 season and he was replaced by Dennis Green, the former receivers coach with the 49ers and head coach at Stanford. The Vikings went to the playoffs eight times in Green’s nine full seasons and reached the NFC Championship Game twice.
As the decade wore on, the NFL became increasingly frustrated with the 10-man committee running the Vikings with none retaining a majority share. The board tried to sell the team to novelist Tom Clancy but the deal fell through. Eventually, the Vikings were sold to Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, a Texas businessman who founded an automotive group, co-founded Clear Channel Communications and owned the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets at different times.
Despite the shift in ownership, Minnesota had a magical year on the field in 1998. Randall Cunningham had great weapons in running back Robert Smith and receivers Randy Moss and Cris Carter. The team went 15-1, with a 27-24 loss to Tampa Bay in Week 7 as the only blemish. After dispatching the Cardinals in the Division round, the Vikings faced the “Dirty Bird” Falcons.
Gary Anderson, who was perfect on 59 extra points and 35 field goals during the regular season, missed a 38-yard attempt with 2:07 left that would have put Minnesota up by 10 points. Instead, Chris Chandler found Terance Mathis with a 16-yard scoring pass with 57 seconds on the clock to send the game to overtime.
Midway through the extra session, Chandler led his team on a 10-play drive that ended when Morten Andersen hit a 38-yard field goal, giving Atlanta a 30-27 victory.
Two years later, the weapons were still there, but Daunte Culpepper was under center. Minnesota went 11-5 and had the fifth-best scoring offense in the league. A win over the Saints set up a showdown in the conference title game against the Giants. New York held their opponents to just 119 totals yards, and Kerry Collins threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns in the 41-0 Giants win.
In the 18 years since, Minnesota has reached the postseason six times, including two more visits to the NFC Championship Game. Tragedy struck before the 2001 season when offensive tackle Korey Stringer died from heatstroke during training camp.
Culpepper had his best season in 2004. He led the league with 4,717 passing yards and threw a team-record 39 touchdowns. The Vikings snuck into the playoffs at 8-8 and defeated the Packers before losing to the Eagles in the Division round.
The following year, McCombs sold the team to Zygi Wilf, an attorney and the owner of a real estate development company whose parents were Holocaust survivors. In 2006, former Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress became the head coach.
Three years later, old nemesis Brett Favre led the Vikings to a 12-4 record and another tussle with the Saints in the NFC title game. Adrian Peterson ran for 122 yards and three touchdowns, but Garrett Hartley kicked a 40-yard field goal in overtime to send New Orleans to Super Bowl XLIV, where they would beat the Colts for their first title.
The team had arguably its greatest moment during the 2017 playoffs. After a 13-3 regular season, the Vikings once again met the Saints, this time in the Division round. The teams traded field goals in the final two minutes and New Orleans led, 24-23, with just 10 seconds left.
Case Keenum threw a pass down the sidelines to a leaping Stefon Diggs. Saints defenders Marcus Williams and Ken Crawley collided, and Diggs barely stayed in-bounds during his 61-yard game-winning touchdown run as time expired. However, the momentum from the “Miracle in Minneapolis” did not last. The Eagles won the NFC crown the following week, 38-7, then knocked off the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
Zimmer enters his sixth season with Kirk Cousins now at quarterback, with Diggs and Adam Thielen as complementary receivers. The defense features end Danielle Hunter, linebackers Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks, cornerbacks Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes and hard-hitting safety Harrison Smith.
-By: Kevin Rakas