The Minnesota Vikings have a long history as a championship team in the state of Minnesota. Not only do they hold one of the top team records in the National Football League (NFL), they also have a strong history of sending players to the National Football League’s Hall of Fame. The state of Minnesota was first granted an NFL franchise in January of 1960. The founding group that advocated for an NFL expansion team to be rooted in Minnesota consisted of five influential men who had a passion for the sport of football: Max Winter, E. William Boyer, Bernard H. Ridder, Jr, H.P. Skoglund and Ole Haugsrud. As this board of directors began to put together the base for the championship team they were building, they realized that they would first have to find a competent general manager for the Minnesota Vikings. They selected Bert Rose, who had previously been the director of Public Relations for the Los Angeles Rams, to fill this role. It was Rose who recommended the team name “VIKINGS” to the board of directors, who liked the name because it implied strength, aggression, a will to win and also represented the strong Nordic heritage found throughout the state of Minnesota.

Norm Van Brocklin, a quarterback who had played twelve NFL seasons and would later be named to the NFL Hall of Fame, had retired in 1960 and was the perfect choice for the first head coach position on the Minnesota Vikings team. Once they had the staff in place, the Minnesota Vikings were ready for their first college draft, where they chose running back Tommy Mason as the first overall choice. In this draft, they also chose quarterback Fran Tarkenton in the third round and defensive back Ed Sharockman in the fifth round. The Minnesota Vikings experienced their first expansion draft the following spring, in which they were able to pick three players from the roster of every team in the NFL after each team had limited (basically put on hold) thirty of their thirty-eight players. Included in their picks were offensive lineman Grady Alderman out of Detroit and running back Hugh McElhenny out of San Francisco. Right around this time the Minnesota Vikings were also named to the Western Conference of the National Football League, joining the ranks of teams from Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Los Angeles and San Francisco.


The first Vikings franchise game was played against the Dallas Cowboys in a pre-season game that was played in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the Dallas Cowboys trampled the Minnesota Vikings 38-13. The first official home game for the Minnesota Vikings was at Metropolitan Stadium (also known as Met Stadium) against the Los Angeles Rams in a pre-season game where the Minnesota Vikings again lost with a score of 21-17. The first regular season home game, which was played against the Chicago Bears, proved that the Minnesota Vikings were not going to be an easy team to beat. Suddenly Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton hit his stride, throwing four touchdown passes and running for a fifth touchdown, giving the Minnesota Vikings a 37-13 win over the Chicago Bears.

In 1964, the carefully selected Minnesota Vikings general manager Bert Rose retired from his position with the team, and the board of directors chose to hire Jim Finks, who had been a part of the Canadian Football League organization for seven years, as their new general manager. In 1965, the Minnesota Vikings home arena, Met Stadium, was expanded from 41,000 seats to capacitate about 47, 000 fans for each home game. Five years later in 1970, the Minnesota Vikings made it to their first ever Superbowl, which took place on the 11th of January in New Orleans at Tulane Stadium. The Minnesota Vikings played the Kansas City Chiefs, and were pummeled with a score of 23-7. They were given a second chance four years later in 1974 when they made it to their second Superbowl in franchise history. This game took place on the 13th of January against the Miami Dolphins at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas. Sadly, the Minnesota Vikings again only scored one touchdown, and took their second Superbowl loss of 24-7.

One year later, the Minnesota Vikings played well enough to make it to their third Superbowl, which again took place at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. They played the Pittsburgh Steelers, and again scored only one touchdown, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a score of 16-6. Their fourth and most recent Superbowl experience was in 1977, when they played the Oakland Riaders at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California, but again lost with a final score of 32-14.

In 1979, the plans were finalized for the new stadium that would house both the Minnesota Vikings football team and the Minnesota Twins baseball team, the HHH Metrodome, which was to be centrally located in downtown Minneapolis. The groundbreaking for this new state-of-the-art stadium took place in December of that year and officially opened in April of 1982. During this time, the Minnesota Vikings also were given a new practice facility, Winter Park, which was named after Minnesota Vikings founding board member Max Winter. The new facility was located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is still home to the team’s office, locker room and practice fields to this day. In 1992, Dennis Green was named to the head coach position with the Minnesota Vikings, and remained there for a 10 year reign. He was able to acquire superstar quarterback Warren Moon from the Houston Oilers, who went down in Minnesota Vikings history and was also named to the NFL Hall of Fame after retiring from the sport of professional football. In 1998, the board of directors of the Minnesota Vikings sold the team to Red McCombs, a businessman from Texas, who sold the team in 2005 to an investment group known as the Wilf family, which was led by businessmen Mark and Zygmunt Wilf. In 2002, assistant coach Mike Tice took over for head coach Denny Green. When Tice failed to turn around the team’s record, he was replaced by now-coach Brad Childress in 2006.

The Minnesota Vikings have a strong history of developing coaches and players who later went on to be inducted to the National Football League’s Hall of Fame. This list includes Carl Eller, Ron Yary, Paul Krause, Bud Grant, Jim Finks, Alan Page, Fran Tarkenton, Hugh McElhenny, Norm Van Brocklin, Jim Langer, Jan Stenerud, Dave Casper, Warren Moon and Gary Zimmerman.

As Minnesota Vikings fans, we look fondly on the past to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a strong future as champions within the National Football League.

V-I-K-I-N-G-S, Skol Vikings, Let’s Go!