The Best Minnesota Vikings Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Offense)

March 16, 2011   ·   JW Nix   ·   Jump to comments

Minneapolis almost had two professional football teams in 1961. A year earlier, the American Football League planned on putting a franchise in the "Twin Cities."
The National Football League, who had a 40-year-old agreement with Ole Haugsrud, pressured the AFL to move their team. That team headed to Oakland and became the Raiders.
Haugsrud once owned the Deluth Eskimos, who are linked to the Washington Redskins. He named his new expansion team the Vikings because that, and the colors the team would use, was the name of his high school football team in Wisconsin.
Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin was named the first head coach of the Vikings. He had just retired as a player, having led the Philadelphia Eagles to a title in 1960. The first Vikings draft saw them acquire Fran Tarkenton in the third round.
Though Van Brocklin and Takenton had a fiery relationship, the future Hall of Fame quarterback known as "The Mad Scrambler" grew with the...

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