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The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American Football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota . They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Vikings have won one NFL Championship and were the first team to both play in and lose four Super Bowl s. The Vikings have won their division 16 times, third most among teams currently playing in the division. They are the only active NFL team that pre-date the Super Bowl era ( 1966 to the present) that have neither won a Super Bowl or won a league championship of any kind prior to the First Super Bowl . The club was founded in 1961 after the ownership group withdrew membership to the American Football League and agreed to join the NFL as an Expansion Team . The team played home games at Metropolitan Stadium through the 1981 NFL Season and have played their home games at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome since 1982. FRANCHISE HISTORY See Also: History of the Minnesota Vikings 1960s Pro football in the Twin Cities began with the Minneapolis Marines/Red Jackets , an NFL team that played intermittently in the 1920s-30s.1 However, a new professional team in the area did not surface again until August 1959, when three Minneapolis businessmen Bill Boyer, H. P. Skoglund and Max Winter were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League . Five months later in January 1960, the ownership group along with Bernie Ridder forfeited its AFL membership and then was awarded the National Football League's 14th franchise with play to begin in 1961.2 Ole Haugsrud was added to the NFL team ownership because of an agreement he had with the NFL since the 1920s when he sold his Duluth Eskimos team back to the league. The agreement allowed him 10% of any future Minnesota team. The team was officially named the Minnesota Viking s on September 27 , 1960 ; the name is partly meant to reflect Minnesota's place as a center of Scandinavian American culture.3 From the start, the Vikings embraced an energetic marketing program that produced a first-year season ticket sales of nearly 26,000 and an average home attendance of 34,586, about 85 percent of the capacity of 40,800 for Metropolitan Stadium . Eventually Met Stadium capacity was increased to 47,900. Early in 1961, the Vikings named Norm Van Brocklin as head coach, though Bud Grant had been a candidate for job. Van Brocklin had just finished his career as a Quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles . The Vikings won their first regular season game, defeating the Chicago Bears 37-13 on Opening Day 1961 . Rookie Fran Tarkenton came off the bench to throw four touchdown passes and run for another to lead the upset. Reality set in as the expansion team lost its next seven games on their way to a 3-11 record. |
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