Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have been around since 1960 and are members of the National Football League. The Vikings were an expansion team in 1960 and started playing the very next season. The Vikings have won a lot of games over their years as a team in the league. Let’s take a look at some of the most relevant information when it comes to the Purple team from the NFC North:

The Minnesota Vikings started their action at the Metropolitan Stadium. They played there from 1961-1981. Then, they moved to the Metrodome – Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome until 2013. That’s when they moved for a season to TCF Bank Stadium, which is where the Minnesota Golden Gophers play their home games. Then, U.S. Bank Stadium was ready, and there they are now.

U.S. Bank Stadium has been home to the Minnesota Vikings, along with other events, since it opened up. For football, they can fit up to 66,000 fans. For other events, such as the Final Four, the capacity sits more like 72,000 fans. The 2019 NCAA Final Four saw 72,711 fans in attendance.

The first NFL game was a preseason game in 2016 between the Vikings and the Chargers. The first regular season game was between the Vikings and the Packers—the first playoff game at the U.S. Bank Stadium was in 2018, and later that year, Super Bowl was played. The Eagles beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LII 41-33.

Baseball games, Soccer Matches, and Concerts are very common at U.S. Bank Stadium. The very first concert was in August of 2016 when Luke Bryan was part of his Kill the Lights Tour with Little Big Town and Dustin Lynch.

The Minnesota Vikings had several team names suggested to them. A few included the Chippewas, Miners, Vikings, and Voyageurs. The team was officially named the Vikings, and it was meant to reflect on Minnesota’s history of Scandinavian-American culture. There were many known Vikings in the region.

Heading into the 2023 season, the Minnesota Vikings had over 515 wins in their franchise history. The Vikings are 21-31 in playoff games. Fran Tarkenton is the top passer in Vikings history, with more than 33,000 yards. Adrian Peterson and Cris Carter are two names the franchise will never forget. Peterson rushed for 11,747 yards in his Vikings career, with 97 touchdowns. Carter was an elite receiver, with 1,004 catches and 110 touchdowns.

The 1998 team was known as an offensive juggernaut. After that season, the Vikings had the record for most points in a season, with 556.

The 1982 season was the opposite, as they scored the fewest points in a single season. Granted, the season was just 9 games long, but they scored just 187 points. Before that, the Vikings had the record for fewest points in a 16-game season. During the 1979 season, Minnesota scored just 259 points.

In 2022, Minnesota was down 36 points, only to score the final 39 points and win the game by 3 in overtime. The win for the Vikings was the largest comeback in NFL history. On the other side, the 1963 season was not pretty for Minnesota in October. The Vikings gave up a franchise-high 56 points in a 42-point loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Finally, the longest field goal in the history of Minnesota Vikings football came in 2002. Greg Joseph nailed one from 61 yards to break the record in 2022.

Unfortunately, the Minnesota Vikings have never won a Super Bowl. The Vikings did win in 1969, which was before the AFL – NFL merger. In that game, the Vikings smacked the Cleveland Browns 27-7 in the final game. This game was held at the Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, in front of 47,900 fans. Minnesota scored the first 27 points of the game in that one. Joe Kapp was named the MVP of the game.

The Vikings have won four conference championships. Of course, one of them was in 1969 as a member of the NFL Western. The three since then came in 1973, 1974, and 1976. All three of those times, Minnesota lost in the Super Bowl.

The Vikings have won 21 divisional championships. Before the merger, they won the NFL Central twice. Since then, Minnesota won 14 Central titles, and now moving to the NFC North, they have won five. The most recent was in 2022. Minnesota’s claim to fame is its 9 divisional titles between 1970 and 1980.

Overall, Minnesota has been to the postseason 31 times. The Vikings, though, have only been to the postseason 5 times since 2012.

Kirk Cousins is the most current quarterback for Minnesota heading into the 2023 season. Heading into the season, Cousins will be fourth in career starts as the quarterback for the organization. With 2 starts in 2023, he will move to third in front of Daunte Culpepper.

Fran Tarkenton is first on the list and made 170 starts. Tarkenton also finished with 239 passing touchdowns in his career. Next, Tommy Kramer, who was the signal caller from 1977-1989, made 110 starts. Karmer is second on the list with 159 touchdown passes, but Cousins needs just 7 to pass him in 2023. Culpepper is fourth on the all-time touchdown list with 135.

As far as postseason wins, the list starts all the way back in 1968. Here are a list of starting quarterbacks in the postseason and a list of how many playoff wins they have.
●Joe Kapp (2)
●Gary Guozzo (0)
●Bob Lee (0)
●Fran Tarkenton (6)
●Tommy Kramer (2)
●Wade Wilson (2)
●Sean Salisbury (0)
●Jim McMahon (0)
●Warren Moon (0)
●Brad Johnson (0)
●Randall Cunningham (2)
●Jeff George (1)
●Kirk Cousins (1)

The Minnesota Vikings have a nice list of Pro Football Hall of Famers. Many of the list are guys that only spent a portion of their career with the Vikings. But they have plenty of their own guys as well.

The first true Minnesota Vikings player into the Hall of Fame was Fran Tarkenton. The quarterback from 1961-1966 and then again from 1972-1978 was inducted back in 1986. Paul Krause was next, in 1998. The safety spent 111 seasons with the Vikings.

Skipping ahead to most recently, Steve Hutchinson, the starting guard for the team from 2006-2011, was inducted in 2020. Other guys in the 2000s include Randall McDaniel, Gary Zimmerman, Rony Yary, Cris Carter, Carl Eller, Randy Moss, Alan Page, and John Randle. Moss was inducted in 2018 and Carter in 2013; both are known as the top receivers in the organization and even in all of the league.

Some names that are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and only spent a little time with the Vikings include Warren Moon, Brett Favre, Morten Andersen, and Jim Langer.

Jim Finks and Bud Grant are both coaches/executives that are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both went in as Vikings. Bud Grant was the head coach for Minnesota from 1967-1983 and then one more season in 1985. Grant was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994. Jim Finks was the General Manager from 1964-1973 and was inducted in 1995.

Here are a few things about the Minnesota Vikings that maybe you did not know:

●Alan Page, former Vikings star, is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also was a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
●There was a team in Minnesota before the Vikings. That was the Minneapolis Marins/Red Jackets that were in the NFL in the 1920s into the 1930s.
●Gjallarhorn is played at Vikings home games and played during big positive plays for the home Vikings. The horn is in the interval of a minor sixth in Western music.
●A few nicknames for the Vikings include “the Vikes,” the “Purple People Eaters,” and the “Purple and Gold.”
●When Brett Favre signed from the rival Packers to the Vikings, he signed a 2-year, $25M deal. When he took on his former team on October 5th, he was the first quarterback to beat all 32 teams as a starter in the league.