04/26/24
March 11, 2023
RIP Bud Grant : Hall of Fame head coach Bud Grant, who led the Vikings to four Super Bowls in the 1970s, has died. He was 95.
He was the oldest living NBA champion, a member of the 1950 Minneapolis Lakers.
posted by NoMich at 11:07 PM on March 11, 2023
RIP Bud.
posted by beaverboard at 04:51 PM on March 12, 2023
I'm going to miss Bud Grant. His teams were a great opponent to the Cowboys of the 1970s, particularly since they ended up on the wrong side of the Hail Mary. I'd never heard of his NBA career. That blows me away.
Grant's Vikings were old school NFL. I remember the team having no adult cheerleaders when Dallas and other teams were making a big deal out of them. Instead the Vikings had high school cheerleaders perform through 1983.
I got Tudor Electric Football as a kid and the teams were the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers from Super Bowl IX. Chuck Foreman mowed down many offenses on the electrified tundra.
posted by rcade at 05:00 PM on March 12, 2023
I loved the December Viking playoff broadcasts from old Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis.
You could see right from the opening shot just how cold it was. Anything with a temp above -5F was emitting some sort of vapor.
In three of their four Super Bowl seasons, the Vikings hosted two home playoff games. It was damn hard for a visiting team to go in there and win a playoff game under those conditions.
Yet one year, the Cowboys went in there and did exactly that.
Chuck Foreman mowed down many offenses on the electrified tundra.
On more than one interminable Tarkenton scramble, he threw a TD pass to Foreman, who had enough time to run from somewhere around midfield all the way down to the goal line. I don't know why the Vikes' OL didn't have heart attacks blocking all those extended plays in space.
posted by beaverboard at 10:42 PM on March 12, 2023
Terrific player in the CFL & was worshipped in Manitoba. A long life, by all reports, well lived.