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Bud Grant

The 1969 Minnesota Vikings Take The Super Bowl Step

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Bud Grant came to the Twin Cities in the 1967 season and turned the Minnesota Vikings into a feisty team. In 1968, Grant got the team into the playoffs for the first time. And the 1969 Minnesota Vikings continued the improvement, enjoying a monster season and reaching the Super Bowl.

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Minnesota was a complete team in every way. They had the league’s most prolific offense and its most stingy defense. The defensive front four, the legendary “Purple People Eaters” was dominant. Carl Eller and Jim Marshall were at the ends, with Alan Page and Gary Larsen on the inside and all four were All-Pro, Eller and Page first-team.

The Vikings had a tough leader at quarterback in Joe Kapp. He was 31-years-old, but still in only his third NFL season, having started his pro career in Canada. The offensive line had its own Pro Bowlers, in Grady Alderman at left tackle, and Mick Tingelhoff at center.

And on both offense and defense, there were big-time playmakers. Gene Washington had 821 yards receiving, a big number in this era and he was superb at stretching the field. Defensively, corners Earsell Mackbee and Bobby Bryant combined for fourteen interceptions and Pro Bowl safety Paul Krause picked off five more.

The running game wasn’t ideal—fullback Bill Brown, now 31-years-old, saw a little bit of a step back from his own All-Pro days and Dave Osborne, while a decent running back, wasn’t outstanding. But the 1969 Minnesota Vikings were a team without real weaknesses.

That wasn’t immediately apparent when the team opened the season in Yankee Stadium against the New York Giants. Gary Cuozzo started at quarterback and threw two long touchdown passes to give the Vikings an early lead. But an old and future friend—Fran Tarkenton, who had been traded from Minnesota upon Grant’s arrival and would soon be traded back—did the Vikes in. Tarkenton threw two late touchdown passes and a mediocre New York team stole a 24-23 win.

One year earlier the Baltimore Colts had been the NFL’s dominant team, before losing one of the famous Super Bowls ever to the New York Jets and Joe Namath as a three-touchdown favorite. What the Vikings did on September 28 in old Metropolitan Stadium sent a loud and clear message.

The Cuozzo idea was junked and Kapp was back in the lineup. He threw an 83-yard touchdown strike to Washington in the first quarter. He hit the speedy wideout on a 42-yard scoring play in the third quarter. Kapp kept pumping touchdowns against an outstanding defense and didn’t stop until he had thrown seven TD passes. Minnesota had a shocking 52-14 rout.

Before the Colts were the NFL champs, the Green Bay Packers were. Vince Lombardi was gone, now with the Washington Redskins, and Minnesota continued its pattern of knocking off the old guard. They forced three turnovers and beat the Packers 19-7.

Minnesota rolled through road games against lousy teams in the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Cardinals, and set up a home date with the Detroit Lions, came into the game at 3-2. The Vikings had the opportunity to open up some room in the Central Division (the teams of today’s NFC North) and they took advantage.

Kapp-to-Washington came through again, a 41-yard touchdown pass, and an early 10-0 lead. Mackbee was all over Detroit quarterback Greg Landry, picking off three passes. The running game took over late, with Osborne and Brown each scoring and the game ended 24-3.

After another win over Chicago, the Vikings prepared to host the Cleveland Browns, who were running away with the Century Division (the Giants, who would finish 6-8 were the closest team to Cleveland). Yet another shock awaited NFL fans—not so much that the Vikings won the game, but the size and scope of the victory.

Kapp hooked up with Washington three different times for touchdowns. This game was Bryant’s turn to play ballhawk, as he intercepted three passes. The final score was 51-3. Minnesota had played the two teams that had met in last year’s league championship game and calmly dropped a combined 103 points on them.

Green Bay and Detroit still held theoretical chances of catching Minnesota in the standings, so a November 16 trip to Milwaukee to meet the Packers was still important. The Vikes did not play well, and a potential scoring drive ended up in an 85-yard interception return the other way for Green Bay. Trailing 7-3, Minnesota looked ripe to be picked, but kicker Fred Cox booted two field goals and they escaped. The Packers were finished as a threat.

After another offensive explosion—52 points over the Pittsburgh Steeler team that was bad enough to get the #1 overall pick in the ensuing year’s draft and get Terry Bradshaw—the Vikings traveled to Detroit for Thanksgiving Day. Minnesota had a two-game lead, and with only three games remaining after this, they could clinch the division.

It was a sloppy game in old Tiger Stadium, but Minnesota just gradually pulled away. Page scored a defensive touchdown in the fourth quarter, and with a 27-0 win, the Vikings had punched their return ticket to the playoffs.

Homefield advantage was determined on a rotation basis, so there was really nothing left to play for, but Minnesota did make one more statement. The Los Angeles Rams were playoff-bound, and the Vikings went west, built a 14-0 lead and beat the Rams 20-13. Minnesota completed the regular season 12-2, losing at Atlanta.

Los Angeles was coming to Minnesota on December 27, amidst 10-degree cold for the first playoff game. The Vikings looked to have an early big play—Eller tipped a pass, caught it and ran in for a touchdown. But Page was whistled offsides and the Rams got a huge break.

Then LA went about the business of making the break count. Quarterback Roman Gabriel worked his tight ends, and the Rams’ own strong defensive front was causing problems for Kapp. Minnesota trailed 17-7 at the half and was still down 20-14 in the fourth quarter.

Grant’s offensive adjustment was for Kapp to roll out more frequently and to take off and run, to try and neutralize the pressure. It worked, and he ultimately ran for a touchdown to put his team up 21-20. With less than four minutes left, the LA offense was backed up and Eller sacked Gabriel for a safety.

Los Angeles came charging back, crossing midfield and looking to tie the game. But Page made amends for his earlier penalty, coming down with a tipped pass that sealed the win. Grant and LA head coach George Allen had more playoff meetings ahead of them, when Allen went to the Washington Redskins two years later. This game started a pattern of Grant consistently coming out on top.

Cleveland was the opponent at the Old Met for the NFL championship (this was the last year prior to the AFL-NFL merger, and what we know as the conference championship round was still considered the “NFL” rather than “NFC” Championship, as would become the case a year later).

The result wasn’t as lopsided as the regular season game, but nor was it close. Kapp ran for an early touchdown and then threw a 75-yard strike to Washington. Osborn, who ran for 108 yards as the Vikings controlled the ground game, took one in from 20 yards out. Washington caught two more passes for an additional 45 yards in the air. It was 24-0 by halftime and the Vikings cruised home to a championship, 27-7.

Minnesota was a two-touchdown favorite over the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, as oddsmakers and the public felt like the NFL losing the prior year’s game was just a fluke. This game proved otherwise, The Vikings couldn’t get anything going, turned it over five times and were picked apart defensively by smart Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson. The Chiefs won 23-7. The AFL was on a par with the NFL, and the newly named AFC would win most of the Super Bowls through the coming decade.

But the Minnesota Vikings were now on a par themselves—with the rest of the league’s elite. They had now broken through and reached a Super Bowl, and it wouldn’t be their last.

The 1968 Minnesota Vikings Bring Playoff Football To The Twin Cities

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The Minnesota Vikings had come into the NFL in 1961, and were waiting for their first trip to the playoffs. The arrival of new head coach Bud Grant in 1967 put the team on a solid footing. And the 1968 Minnesota Vikings, while far from a great team, were able to give the Twin Cities playoff football for the first time.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 


Success began up front for the Vikings and the defensive line was outstanding. Carl Eller, the dynamic 26-year-old defensive end was a 1st-team All-Pro. Second-year defensive tackle Alan Page and veteran defensive end Jim Marshall each made the Pro Bowl themselves. On the offensive side of the trenches, the Vikes got a Pro Bowl season from center Mick Tingelhoff.

If you’re tough up front, you can compete, especially in the 1968 world of the NFL, and the Vikings were tough up front.

With a no-nonsense profile like this, it’s appropriate that the most accomplished player at the skill positions was a fullback. Bill Brown was 1st-team All-Pro himself and even the quarterback, 30-year-old Joe Kapp, was as renowned for being rugged as he was for throwing the ball.

Kapp, who had come from the CFL the prior year and taken over for Fran Tarkenton after the latter was traded, finally became the permanent quarterback in 1968, and his favorite target was Gene Washington. The 24-year-old receiver caught 46 passes for 756 yards, pretty good in a running era when defensive backs were allowed to get physical at the line of scrimmage.

The Vikings had gone 3-8-3 in Grant’s first year, but the signs of progress were clearly there as the season went along. Minnesota came out and buried the woeful Atlanta Falcons 47-7 in the season opener. Beating Atlanta didn’t make one a playoff team, but at the very least, Grant’s team had shown there was now a considerable distance between them and the league’s worst.

Up next was a road game with the Green Bay Packers that would prove to be a seminal moment in the history of this division (the teams of the NFL Central in 1968 are the same four of today’s NFC North). The Packers were in a new era, as Vince Lombardi retired following a Super Bowl win in 1967. They opened the ’68 campaign with a 30-13 win over a bad Philadelphia Eagles team. Then, on September 22 at Milwaukee County Stadium, a changing of the guard moment happened.

Kapp delivered a workmanlike 9/15 for 138 yards performance and Brown established the run, pounding in a pair of first-half touchdowns. The defense was excellent. Marshall sacked quarterback Bart Starr for a safety. Corner Earsell Mackbee picked off one pass, and safety Paul Krause intercepted another, one of a team-leading seven interceptions for Krause this year. Minnesota delivered a 26-13 win that stood out for how ruthlessly efficient it was.

We know in retrospect that it was a changing-of-the-guard game, as the Packers declined, and the Vikings went on to mostly own this division for the 1970s, but the immediate aftermath of Week 2 made one wonder if Minnesota could keep their focus.

They went to Chicago and Gale Sayers ran over them for 108 yards on 16 carries, as the Bears built a 17-0 lead and coasted to a 27-17 win. A win over the last-place Detroit Lions righted the ship, but then Minnesota managed to lose at lowly New Orleans, 20-17. What’s worse is they not only lost to a lousy team, but in came in spite of seven turnovers by the Saints. Kapp was awful, at 9/28 for 78 yards.

Another loss to a strong Dallas Cowboys team followed, and then the Bears came into town on October 27. Chicago had started slowly, with their win over Minnesota being the only one in the first five game. But they were finding their groove. Sayers again couldn’t be stopped, going for 143 yards. Kapp played well, going 16/27 for 205 yards, including six catches by Washington for 133 of the yards. But Chicago still kicked a late field goal and won a back-and-forth game 26-24.

Minnesota was able to play the Washington Redskins, en route to a 5-8 season next, and the Vikes won 27-14. They were 4-4, as were the Bears, with the Packers at 3-4-1. Minnesota again beat Green Bay, with Brown again rushing for two touchdowns against the Packers and then defense again being opportunistic, collecting four turnovers. The 14-10 win kept the Vikings tied for first with the Bears.

A win at Detroit followed, and then the gap between Minnesota and the league elite showed in consecutive losses to the Baltimore Colts on the road and the Los Angeles Rams at home.

The Colts were the best team in the NFL, on their way to a 13-1 year. They would ultimately be remembered as the team that lost to Joe Namath and the New York Jets as an 18-point favorite in the Super Bowl, but even that unfortunate ending tells you how good they were. The Rams finished 10-3-1, and only the fact they were in Baltimore’s division prior to the era of wild-cards kept them out of the playoffs. Minnesota lost the two games by a combined 52-12.

Minnesota stood at 6-6 and there were two games left. Chicago was also 6-6, but held the tiebreaker. Green Bay was 5-6-1, but got to play the Bears in the season finale. The Vikings had to keep winning, and with two road games ahead, it didn’t look good.

The first road game was at San Francisco, a team as good as any in the Central, but with the misfortune to fall behind the Colts and Rams. Minnesota played perhaps its best game of the year. Kapp was 10/17 for 150 yards, they won the turnover battle 3-1 and built a 27-6 lead, on their way to a 30-20 win.

By rights, this should have been enough to vault the Vikings to first place, since the Bears were in Los Angeles, but Chicago pulled off a 17-16 upset to maintain control of the division. Minnesota had to win in Philadelphia in Week 14 and hope for help.

The Vikings only threw the ball ten times in Philly, but Kapp made the most of it, completing seven and getting 135 yards out of it. Brown produced a workmanlike 78 yards and Minnesota churned out a 24-17 win. Meanwhile, the Packers were jumping all over the Bears in Wrigley Field, leading 28-10 in the fourth quarter. Chicago made a furious rally, but in the era prior to the two-point conversion, could only close to 28-27. Green Bay won and Minnesota was the champion of the NFL Central.

It might have been a playoff year that came about as much as a byproduct of the divisional alignment then anything, but that’s hardly unusual in sports history. Minnesota, at 8-6 was in the playoffs.

The trip to Baltimore for the divisional playoff round ended with a loss. The final was 24-14, although with the Colts scoring the game’s first 21 points in the second quarter, one of them a defensive touchdown on a fumble recovery return, it really wasn’t that close. Minnesota was never able to establish Brown and the running game. The Colts were able to make big plays in the air, as league MVP Earl Morrall went 13/22 for 280 yards.

But the most important thing about the 1968 Minnesota Vikings season is that they got to the playoffs. They would be back many more times in the years to come, and a run to the Super Bowl was just around the corner.