1969 NFL Championship Game
January 4, 1970 at the Met: the Vikings beat Cleveland 27-7 for the franchise's only NFL championship.
The 1969 NFL Championship Game was played on January 4, 1970, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Minnesota Vikings, champions of the Western Conference, beat the Cleveland Browns 27-7 in what was the 37th and last NFL title game played before the merger with the AFL. The win sent the Vikings to Super Bowl IV.
Quick Facts
- Visitor
- Cleveland Browns
- Visitor record
- 10–3–1
- Home
- Minnesota Vikings
- Home record
- 12–2
- Visitor coach
- Blanton Collier
- Home coach
- Bud Grant
- Home total
- 27
- Date
- January 4, 1970
Facts from the source article.
Background
It was the Vikings' first appearance in a championship game. Bud Grant's team had gone 12-2, had crushed the Browns 51-3 earlier that season, and had beaten the Los Angeles Rams 23-20 in the Western Conference final a week before. The weather was bitterly cold, around 8 degrees Fahrenheit. Minnesota scored on its opening drive when Joe Kapp kept the ball himself for a 7-yard touchdown run, and Kapp later found Gene Washington for a 75-yard touchdown. The Vikings gained 381 yards without a turnover while Cleveland lost the ball three times. Of the four teams that joined the NFL in the 1960s, Minnesota was the only one to win a pre-merger NFL championship. Two weeks later the Vikings lost Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7.
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