Minnesota Vikings

However, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, 17-14, on a controversial touchdown pass from the Cowboys' quarterback Roger Staubach to wide receiver Drew Pearson that became known as the Hail Mary.

The Vikings played in their 3rd Super Bowl (4th overall) in 4 years against the Oakland Raiders at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on January 9, 1977. The Vikings however, couldn't break its bad luck in the Super Bowl. Minnesota lost, 32-14. The Vikings earned a trip to Super Bowl XI by defeating the Rams, 24-13, at Metropolitan Stadium on December 26, 1976, in what ended up being the last Vikings playoff game at the Met.

On January 1, 1978, the Vikings played Dallas Cowboys in their 4th NFC Championship Game in 5 years at Texas Stadium. Minnesota lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champs, 23-6.

1980s

On May 15, 1981, the Vikings moved into a new facility in Eden Prairie that houses the team's offices, locker room and practice fields. The complex was named "Winter Park" after Max Winter, one of the Vikings founders who served as the team's president from 1965-87.

The Vikings played their 1st game at the Metrodome in a preseason matchup against Seattle on Aug. 21, 1982. Minnesota prevailed, 7-3. The 1st touchdown in the new facility was scored by Joe Senser on an 11-yard pass from Tommy Kramer. The 1st regular-season game in the Metrodome was the 1982 opener on September 12, when the Vikings defeated Tampa Bay, 17-10. Rickey Young scored the 1st regular-season touchdown in the facility on a 3-yard run in the 2nd quarter.

On January 27, 1984, Bud Grant retired as Head Coach of the Vikings. In 17 seasons Grant led Minnesota to 12 playoff appearances, 11 division titles and 4 Super Bowls. His career regular-season record was 151-87-5 (.632). The person that would take his place would be Les Steckel.

Les Steckel, who was an offensive assistant with the Vikings for 5 seasons, was named the 3rd head coach in franchise history on January 29, 1984. Steckel, who came to the Vikings in 1979 after working as an assistant with the 49ers, was the youngest head coach in the NFL in 1984 at age 38.

After Steckel's dismal season, he was fired and on December 18, 1984, Bud Grant was re-hired as the head coach of the Vikings.

On January 6, 1986, following the 1985 season, Bud Grant re-retired as head coach of the Vikings. At the time of his retirement he was the 6th winningest coach in NFL history with 168 career wins, including playoffs. In 18 seasons he led the Vikings to a 158-96-5 regular season record.

Longtime Vikings assistant coach Jerry Burns was named the 4th head coach in team history on January 7, 1986. He served as the Vikings offensive coordinator from 1968-85, when the team won 11 division titles and played in 4 Super Bowls. In his first season, the Vikings led by the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Tommy Kramer, went 9-7, their first winning record in 4 years. In his second season, he led the Vikings to the NFC championship game.

Following the strike-shortened 1987 season, the 8-7 Vikings pulled two huge upsets in the playoffs by beating the two teams with the best regular season records. They beat the 12-3 New Orleans Saints, 44-10, at the Superdome in the Wild Card Playoff game. The following week, in the Divisional Playoff game, they beat the 13-2 San Francisco 49ers, 36-24, at Candlestick Park. During that game Anthony Carter (football) set the all-time record for most receiving yards in a playoff game with 227 yards. The Vikings played the Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship Game on January 17, 1988, at RFK Stadium. Trailing 17-10, the Vikings drove to the Redskins' 6-yard line with a little over a minute left in the game but failed to get the ball into the end zone.

The Vikings would make what would be considered its biggest personnel blunder in team history. On October 12, 1989, the Vikings acquired Herschel Walker from Dallas. The final result of the trade gave the Vikings Walker, a 3rd (Mike Jones), 5th (Reggie Thornton) and 10th-round choice (Pat Newman) in 1990 and a 3rd-round choice in 1991 (Jake Reed), while Dallas received Issiac Holt, David Howard, Darrin Nelson, Jesse Solomon, Alex Stewart, a 1st, 2nd and 6th-round choice in 1990, a 1st and 2nd-round choice in 1991 and a 1st, 2nd and 3rd-round choice in 1992. Two of those selections turned into Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson. Herschel's performance fell short of expectations in his 3 seasons with the Vikings, while the Cowboys rode their draft picks to 3 Super Bowl victories in the early to mid 1990s.

1990-1997

On December 3, 1991, Jerry Burns announced his retirement. In 6 seasons as Head Coach of the Vikings, Burns compiled a career record of 52-43 (.547). He also led Minnesota to 3 playoff appearances, including a division title and an NFC Championship Game.

On January 10, 1992, Dennis Green was named the 5th Head Coach in team history. He came to Minnesota after turning around a struggling Stanford University football program as head coach from 1989-91.

In his 10 seasons as the coach of the Vikings, Green won 4 NFC Central division titles, had 8 playoff appearances, 2 NFC Championship game appearances and an all-time record of 97-62.

1998

1998 was a year to remember for the Minnesota Vikings, with a spectacular offense led by quarterback Randall Cunningham, who had his best NFL season ever, running back Robert Smith, veteran wide receiver Cris Carter, and explosive rookie Randy Moss, the Vikings set an NFL record by scoring a total of 556 points, never scoring fewer than 24 in a game. The Vikings finished the season 15-1, their only loss by 3 points to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week nine. In the playoffs, the Vikings rolled past the Arizona Cardinals 41-21, and came into the Metrodome heavily favored for their NFC title showdown with the Atlanta Falcons, who had finished 14-2. However, kicker Gary Anderson, who had gone 35 for 35 in the regular season, missed a 38-yard attempt with less than 2 minutes remaining. That allowed the Falcons to tie the game and then win it 30-27 in overtime on Morten Andersen's field goal, which was ironically, also a 38-yarder. The Vikings became the first 15-1 team to fail to reach the Super Bowl.

1999

Randall Cunningham resumed duties again in 1999, but after a lukewarm 2-4 start, Jeff George was given the starting job. He finished the season with an 8-2 record, and lead the Vikings in the postseason once again, at 10-6. Minnesota beat Dallas in the Wild card game 27-10, and faced playoff newcomer Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams in the Divisional matchup. The game was a shootout, but the Rams outscored Minnesota 35 to 20 in the second half to win 49-37. St. Louis would go on to win Super Bowl XXXIV.

2000

Led by first-year starting quarterback Daunte Culpepper, the Vikings had a season in which Robert Smith ran for a team record 1,521 yards and 7 touchdowns. The Vikings were 11-2 after 14 weeks, but slumped briefly, losing their last three to the Rams, Packers and Colts. However they would return to the playoffs again for the fifth straight year. After easily beating the Saints in the Divisional game 34-16, they were humiliated 41-0 by the New York Giants in the Conference Championship, and to top that, Robert Smith retired at the end of the year, after only playing eight NFL seasons.

2001

Tragedy struck the Minnesota Vikings in the summer of 2001, when Offensive Lineman Korey Stringer died of heat stroke in training camp in Mankato, Minnesota. Although Minnesota has a reputation for cold weather, in late July and early August it can be brutally hot.

The 2001 season started off with a 24-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers. This would be the only win for Carolina in 2001, they ended up 1-15. Over the next sixteen weeks, wins for Minnesota were few and far between. Some season highlights included a 35-13 win over the rival Green Bay Packers in week six, and a week ten victory over the Giants in which Randy Moss pulled in 10 receptions for 171 yards and 3 touchdowns leading to a 28-16 victory. But despite having a 12th ranked offense, their defense was in the bottom five, and the Vikings finished 5-11.

After the disappointing season, Dennis Green, who had become a polarizing force in the Viking fan base despite his successful coaching tenure with the team, had his contract bought out. Mike Tice coached the final game of 2001, losing to the Ravens.

2002-2003

On January 10, 2002, Mike Tice was named the sixth Head Coach in Vikings history. Tice was the third of the six Vikings Head Coaches to be promoted from within the team's coaching ranks but was the first to have actually played for the Vikings.

In Tice's first season, the Vikings had a dismal 6-10 record, which he turned around in 2003 with a fast 6-0 start. However, the Vikings ended up going 3-7 the rest of the season, missing the playoffs with a last second touchdown reception by the Arizona Cardinals' receiver Nate Poole. Green Bay won the division at 10-6, while the Vikings were 9-7. Ironically, the following season the Cardinals hired Dennis Green as their Head Coach.

2004

History repeated itself in 2004 as the Vikings went 3-7 over the last 10 weeks, but this time they made the playoffs despite only going 8-8. Daunte Culpepper had a MVP-like season, amassing 4,717 passing yards (which led the NFL), 39 passing touchdowns (a Viking record), and 5,123 total yards, breaking Dan Marino's mark. The Vikings made history in the playoffs by beating their rivals, the Green Bay Packers, in their first ever playoff meeting. They also became the second team in NFL history to go .500 (8-8) in the regular season and then win a playoff game, one day after the St. Louis Rams accomplished the feat. In that game, wide receiver Randy Moss pretended to moon a crowd of Packers fans after a touchdown and was fined $10,000. They would lose to the eventual NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles the following week 27-14.

2005

The following offseason, Minnesota traded the hero of that Green Bay game (and arguably their best player), WR Randy Moss, to the Oakland Raiders for linebacker Napoleon Harris and the Raiders' first and seventh round picks of the 2005 NFL Draft. With the first round pick (number 7) they selected WR Troy Williamson of South Carolina. A common misconception is the Vikings freed a ton of salary cap space by trading Moss. The reality is they were already well under the salary cap - more than $30 million in fact - and actually had to absorb about $7-10 million just to trade Moss. But they still had around $20 million in cap space and signed 5 new defensive starters to shore up their previously 28th ranked defense. The Vikings fan base wondered if this was the franchise's biggest blunder in team history or one of their greatest moves.

At first, the move looked like a blunder. The Vikings started off by losing their first two games to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (24-13) and the Cincinnati Bengals (37-8). They would win in Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints (33-16), but then they would go on to lose their next two road games to the Atlanta Falcons (30-10) and their division rival Chicago Bears (28-3). The Vikings would win at home against fellow division rival Green Bay Packers 23-20 by winning the same way the Packers did last season, which was a last second field goal. However, the Vikes had little to celebrate when in the next week, not only did they lose to the Carolina Panthers 38-13 on the road, but they would also lose their star QB Daunte Culpepper for the season with a knee injury, who had thrown twice as many interceptions as touchdowns up until that point. At this point the Vikings were 2-5.

Taking Culpepper's place would be Brad Johnson (Viking from 1994-98 and quarterback of the Super Bowl XXXVII champion Buccaneers) and ever since he took over, he led the Vikings to a six-game winning streak, including victories over the Detroit Lions at home (27-14), the New York Giants (24-21), the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field (20-17 and also on a last second field goal), the Cleveland Browns (24-12), the Detroit Lions at Ford Field (21-16), and a 27-13 home victory over the St. Louis Rams. Johnson ended up with the lowest interception to attempt ratio in Vikings history and the 3rd best passer rating in the NFC. The streak ended with an 18-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the eventual Super Bowl champions. Christmas Day 2005 will go down as a day Viking fans would much rather forget. After having their chances of winning the NFC North extinguished when the Bears defeated the Packers earlier in the day, the Vikings were officially eliminated from NFC playoff contention with a 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Vikings won their last game of the 2005 season against the Bears, with a 34-10 victory. However, the Vikings fired head coach Mike Tice immediately following the game. They ended up with a 9-7 record and 1 win away from the playoffs.

2006

On January 6th, 2006, the Vikings were the first football organization to hire a new head coach during the 2006 offseason, Brad Childress. Childress previously held the offensive coordinator position at the Philadelphia Eagles from 2002-2005 and at the University of Wisconsin from 1993-1999 under Barry Alvarez.

In the 2006 NFL Draft, the Vikings used their first pick on Iowa LB Chad Greenway. They then used their next pick on Texas CB Cedric Griffin. The rest of their picks on New Mexico Center Ryan Cook, Alabama St. QB Tarvaris Jackson, Purdue DE Ray Edwards, and Georgia Safety Greg Blue.

Logo and uniforms

From the team's debut in 1961 to 1995, the Vikings' logos and uniforms essentially remained the same. One of the team's two primary logos consists of a profile of a blond norseman, while the other consists of a white viking horn.

The team's helmet is purple with the viking horn logo on each side. The uniform design consists of white pants, gold trim, and either purple or white jerseys. In a design that is unique among American football teams, the white jerseys have a completely different stripe pattern, which is over the shoulders, than the purple ones, which are around the sleeve cuff. There have also been minor changes to the uniform design throughout the years, such as changing the color of the facemask from gray to white (1980), and then to purple (1985); and adding the norseman logo to the sleeves (1996). The shoulder stripes on the white jerseys did not appear until 1969, the year they went to their first Super Bowl. And from 1961 to 1964, the Vikings wore purple pants with their white jerseys.

The team's uniforms were redesigned in 2006, the first significant change in the franchise's 46-year history. Although the team colors remained the same, trim lines were added to the outside shoulders and sleeves, and the sides of the jerseys and pants. In addition the horn on the helmet was slightly more defined. Included in the new design are both white and purple pants. [1] [2]

Franchise traditions, trends

Viking horn

A two-note clarion call mimicking an authentic warrior horn. Often played over the Metrodome PA system to incite the crowd into a frenzy.

To listen to a sample of the Viking horn go to:Vikings Tailgating

Helga hats

Viking fans are known to dress up in "Helga Hats", or purple hats with white horns and blond braids, mimicking the helmets popularly, (but incorrectly) believed to have been worn by Viking warriors.

Mascot

The current team mascot is Ragnar, possibly the only "human" mascot in professional sports, meaning that he doesn't wear anything over his head. Ragnar (played by Joseph Juranitch) has been working for the Vikings since 1994, and claims to be the most widely-recognized mascot in the world. Jurantich admits to being somewhat of an eccentric—he holds the current world record for fastest time shaving a beard with an axe. Ragnar drives onto the field at the beginning of games on a motorcycle or snowmobile, and during the games on a Segway.

Another mascot associated with the Vikings was "Vikadontis Rex." V.R. was a purple dinosaur and was the official mascot of the Minnesota Vikings Children's Fund. V.R. took part in the 1995 Celebrity Mascot Olympics. Vikadontis was retired starting with the 2000 season.

Curses

The Vikings, even though they are a very successful franchise, are faced with championship futility, much like the Chicago Cubs, the Toronto Maple Leafs and many other successful franchises in other sports. Many attribute their futilities to "curses", such as the Cubs' Billy Goat curse. The Vikings have the more esoteric rune stone curse, named for the Kensington Runestone, claimed to be Viking in origin, which was found near Alexandria, Minnesota. Legend has it that the runestone predicts the fate of the Minnesota Vikings in the future.

22 Norwegians on:discovery voyage from:Vinland over (the) west we:had camp by 2 skerries one:days journey north from this stone:we were and fishe(ed) one day after:we came home found 10 men red:with blood and dead.

The 22 Norwegians in this reference are a reference to the 22 players that play on a starting offense and defense on an NFL football team. The 10 dead are usually a reference to a massive group of injuries or an offense or defense that plays sub par.

They also have the 0 for 4 Curse. They have played in four Super Bowls, but have won none.

2005 Boat cruise scandal

During October, 2005 a major scandal rocked the Minnesota Vikings. Allegations surfaced that several Vikings players were involved in inappropriate sexual behavior during a cruise on Lake Minnetonka. No charges had been filed, although Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has apologized to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty for the team's conduct. The scandal has hurt the team's quest for public funding for a new stadium in Anoka County. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently on the case.

On October 21, 2005, Wilf reportedly delivered an "intense" profanity-laced address to the team regarding the scandal.

On November 30, 2005, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the 17 Minnesota Vikings involved in the scandal might avoid all charges; however, on December 15, 2005, Daunte Culpepper, Bryant McKinnie, Fred Smoot, and Moe Williams were charged with indecent conduct, disorderly conduct and lewd or lascivious conduct. If convicted, each player faces a maximum of 90 days in jail on each count. [3]

On January 5, 2006, Running Back Moe Williams was pleaded not guilty, but then, on April 20, he was found guilty and sentenced to a $300 fine and 30 hours of community service.

On April 4, 2006, a judge dismissed misdemeanor charges against Daunte Culpepper, in connection with last fall's boat-party sex scandal. The judge ruled there wasn't probable cause to determine a crime was committed by the former Viking during the cruise on a Minnesota lake last fall.

On May 26, 2006, Fred Smoot and Bryant McKinnie pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and being a public nuisance on a watercraft. The two will pay a $1,000 fine and perform 48 hours of community service.

Season-by-season records