The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also known as the Black & Blue Division. The Vikings have won one NFL championship (Pre-1970 AFL-NFL Merger), but subsequently lost 23-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV. The Vikings were the first team to both play in and lose four Super Bowls. The Vikings have won their division 17 times, third most among teams currently playing in the NFL.
The club was founded in 1961 after the ownership group withdrew membership to the American Football League and agreed to join the NFL as an expansion team. The team played home games at Metropolitan Stadium through the 1981 NFL season and have played their home games at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (the home of the American League baseball team Minnesota Twins) since 1982.
Franchise History
Pro football in the Twin Cities began with the Minneapolis Marines/Red Jackets, an NFL team that played intermittently in the 1920s-30s.However, a new professional team in the area did not surface again until August 1959, when three Minneapolis businessmen Bill Boyer, H. P. Skoglund and Max Winter were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League. Five months later in January 1960, the ownership group along with Bernie Ridder forfeited its AFL membership and then was awarded the National Football League's 14th franchise with play to begin in 1961.Ole Haugsrud was added to the NFL team ownership because of an agreement he had with the NFL since the 1920s when he sold his Duluth Eskimos team back to the league. The agreement allowed him 10% of any future Minnesota team.
The team was officially named the Minnesota Vikings on September 27, 1960; the name is partly meant to reflect Minnesota's place as a center of Scandinavian American culture.From the start, the Vikings embraced an energetic marketing program that produced a first-year season ticket sales of nearly 26,000 and an average home attendance of 34,586, about 85 percent of the capacity of 40,800 for Metropolitan Stadium. Eventually Met Stadium capacity was increased to 47,900.The search for the first head coach had the team court then-Northwestern University head coach Ara Parseghian, who according to Minneapolis Star writer Jim Klobuchar -- the Vikings' first beat reporter for that newspaper -- visited team management in the Twin Cities under the condition that his visit was to be kept secret from his current employer. His cover was blown by local columnist Sid Hartman who reported the visit and forced Parseghian to issue denials. Philadelphia Eagles assistant Nick Skorich and a man with Minnesota ties who was working in the CFL, Bud Grant, were also candidates until a different Eagle, quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, was hired early in 1961. Van Brocklin had just finished his career as a player on a high note, having defeated the Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL championship.
With the first overall selection in the 1961 NFL draft, the Vikings selected running back Tommy Mason of Tulane. They took a young quarterback from the University of Georgia named Fran Tarkenton in the third round. Notable veterans acquired in the offseason were Norm Snead and Hugh McElhenny. The Vikings won their first regular season game, defeating the Chicago Bears 37-13 on Opening Day 1961. Tarkenton came off the bench to throw four touchdown passes and run for another to lead the upset.Reality set in as the expansion team lost its next seven games on their way to a 3-11 record.
On March 7, 1967, quarterback Fran Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants for a 1st and 2nd-round choice in 1967, a 1st-round choice in 1968 and a 2nd-round choice in 1969. With the picks Minnesota selected Clinton Jones and Bob Grim in 1967, Ron Yary in 1968 and Ed White in 1969.Three days later on March 10, the Vikings hired new head coach Bud Grant to replace Van Brocklin, who resigned following the 1966 NFL season. Grant came to the Vikings from the Canadian Football League as head coach for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who he led to four Grey Cup Championships in 10 years.During the late 1960s, the Vikings were building a powerful defense known as the Purple People Eaters, led by Alan Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, and Jim Marshall.In 1968, that stingy defense earned the Vikings their first Central Division Title and their first playoff berth.
In 1969 the Vikings went 12-2, the best record in the NFL.The team had 12 straight victories, the longest single-season winning streak in 35 years.The Vikings defeated the Cleveland Browns, 27-7, in the NFL Championship Game on Jan. 4, 1970, at Metropolitan Stadium. Minnesota became the first modern NFL expansion team to win an NFL Championship Game,and earned a berth in Super Bowl IV. The heavily favored Vikings lost that game to the Kansas City Chiefs 23-7.
Source: Wikipedia
