Minnesota Vikings

Lore & Background

The Vikings have an all-time overall record of , the highest regular season and combined winning percentage among NFL franchises who have not won a Super Bowl, in addition the most playoff runs, division titles, and (tied with the Buffalo Bills) Super Bowl appearances. They also have the most conference championship appearances of non-winning Super Bowl teams, with them being one of four (along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams) to appear in a conference championship every decade since the 1970s. The team played in Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX and XI, but failed to win any of them. The Vikings have 15 members in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Reader's Guide

From the team's first season in 1961 to 1981, the team called Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington home. The Vikings played their home games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis from 1982 to 2013. The Vikings played their last game at the Metrodome on December 29, 2013, defeating the Detroit Lions 14–13 to end the season. The Vikings have won one NFL Championship, in 1969, before the league's merger with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. Since the merger, the team has qualified for the playoffs 28 times, third-most in the league (trailing only the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers).

Did You Know?

• The Vikings were officially named on September 27, 1960.
• The team's first head coach was Norm Van Brocklin, hired on January 18, 1961.
• The Vikings' first regular-season game was a 37–13 win over the Chicago Bears on Opening Day 1961.
• The Vikings' famed defensive line of the late 1960s was known as the Purple People Eaters.
• Quarterback Fran Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants on March 7, 1967, and reacquired on January 27, 1972.