Bud Grant (May, 1927 - March, 2023)

Bud Grant, the stoic, strait-laced Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings for 18 years, building a team that went to four Super Bowls and was one of the best of the 1970s, died on Saturday at his home in Bloomington, Minn. He was 95.

The Vikings announced Grant’s death.

A genial man in private, Grant often appeared silent and aloof at work. Wiry and svelte, with a prematurely gray flattop haircut, he had the air of an ascetic field general in an era when many coaches were known for their hard-driving and often histrionic personalities.

In 1967, after a successful 10-year run coaching in Canada, Grant took over a forlorn franchise that had limped through its first six seasons of existence. He quickly built it into a winner that, along with the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams, dominated the National Football Conference through most of the 1970s.

He had a regular-season record of 158-96-5, for a .621 winning percentage, the second-most victories for a Vikings coach. His Vikings won 11 division titles and made it to four Super Bowls, but they never won; they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970, the Miami Dolphins in 1974, the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1975 and the Oakland Raiders in 1977.

Grant was popular with his players because, unlike his contemporaries, he rarely yelled. “They start getting screamed at when they’re in Little League,” he said of his team. “The ones who make it this far are pretty good at turning it off.” (...)

And he often kept practices light so his players could save their physical and mental energy for games. Other coaches held two and sometimes three practices a day during training camp; Grant brought his team together a week later than most, and they rarely scrimmaged. If an older player looked tired, he might get a day off.

Grant’s laissez-faire attitude extended to the regular season. He left the office in time to get home for dinner, anathema in a league filled with workaholic taskmasters. An avid hunter and fisherman from childhood, he would get up at 4 a.m., be in a duck blind 20 minutes later, stay until 7:30 or 7:45, then go to his office.

“A good coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback, but not necessarily in that order,” Grant wrote in The New York Times in 1984. “I happen to have been blessed with all three, and when I did happen to have any extra time I didn’t spend it with the quarterback.”

His teams were led by the celebrated defensive line known as the Purple People Eaters, headed by Alan Page and Carl Eller, and by an offense that included quarterback Fran Tarkenton and running back Chuck Foreman. He was named N.F.L. coach of the year in 1969 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994. He won 10 or more games seven times between the 1969 and 1976 seasons.

by Ken Belson, NY Times |  Read more:

Image: Barton Silverman/The New York Times
[ed. One of the best. I was digging around in some papers the other day and found these old notebook pages. Nothing special as autographs go. I suppose I could try selling them on Ebay or something but not really interested in whatever they're worth (probably not much), and not really up to the effort. Not sure what'll happen to them, probably get tossed out when I die. But, I'll always remember a special day and getting to meet Bud Grant personally (who was very nice).

I grew up a great Minnesota Vikings football fan. Although we lived in Hawaii, my mom was from Spring Valley, a small town in southern Minn., and every four years or so we'd go back to spend summers visiting my grandparents and other relatives. One of those times occurred in the summer of 1969. My aunt lived in Mankato and invited us up to visit the Vikings training camp and see some of the players. I was in heaven - real NFL players, Purple People Eaters! Shortly after lunch the players began emerging from their training facility and sat down on a bench outside getting ready for another hot afternoon scrimmage. They looked just like their photographs, and huge (I was 14 yrs old then). I cautiously approached the bench with a little spiral-bound notebook and asked if they wouldn't mind an autograph, please? The first player I approached was Carl Eller, who gave me the scariest, dirtiest look you can imagine (I think I have that photograph somewhere, I need to dig it out - he was probably just having fun), but he grudgingly signed my little book and I moved on down the bench, looking for players I admired and knew (and who might be a little more approachable than Carl). As you can see, I was still able to get a few Greats: (along with Carl), Mick Tinglehoff, Joe Kapp, Earsell Macbee (?), and of course, the best - Bud Grant (lower right corner).