Minnesota Vikings - History

History

Main article: History of the Minnesota Vikings See also: List of Minnesota Vikings seasons

Professional football in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul area (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 Minneapolis businessmen Bill Boyer, H. P. Skoglund, and Max Winter were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League (AFL). Five months later in January 1960, after significant pressure from the NFL, the ownership group, along with Bernie Ridder, reneged on its agreement with the AFL 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 in the 1920s when he sold his Duluth Eskimos team back to the league, the agreement allowed him 10% of any future Minnesota team. Coincidentally or not, the teams from Ole Haugsrud's high school, Central High School in Superior, WI, were also called the Vikings. The school also had a similar purple and yellow uniform design.

Read more about this topic:  Minnesota Vikings

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.”
    —Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    “It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
    —Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)

    “The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
    —Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)