History of The Minnesota Vikings - 1970s: The Purple People Eaters

1970s: The Purple People Eaters

The team continued to shine in 1970 and 1971 as their "Purple People Eater" defense led them back to the playoffs. In 1971, the defense was so impressive that Alan Page became only the first defensive player to win the NFL Most Valuable Player Award (MVP). The first post-merger game was a rematch with Kansas City, which the Vikings won 27–10. However, Joe Kapp had been traded away during the 1970 off-season and his replacement Gary Cuozzo delivered some quite mediocre performances. Nonetheless, the defense carried the team to a 12–2 regular season and the top of the newly-created NFC Central division. They lost the divisional round of the playoffs to San Francisco 17–14. Continued strong defense made up for Cuozzo's shortcomings as the Vikings won their division again in 1971 with an 11–3 record. For the second year in a row, they lost the divisional round at home, this time to Dallas (the score being 20–12) in the first NFL game played on Christmas Day.

During this period, the issue of a new stadium began to surface. Metropolitan Stadium had originally been designed for minor-league baseball and was inadequate for an NFL team, seating 48,500 when the league now required a capacity of at least 50,000. Also, the stadium experienced harsh weather conditions late in the season. As the coldest venue in the NFL, it provided a considerable home-field advantage to the Vikings, but was miserable for players, staff, and fans after October. However, no replacement was available for the time being.

On January 27, 1972 the Vikings decided to get Fran Tarkenton back. In exchange for him, they traded Norm Snead, Bob Grim, Vince Clements and a 1st-round choice in 1972 and 1973 to the New York Giants. While the acquisitions of Tarkenton and wide receiver John Gilliam improved the passing attack, the running game was inconsistent and the Vikings finished with a disappointing 7–7 record. The Vikings addressed the problem by drafting running back Chuck Foreman with their first pick in the 1973 draft. Co-owner Bill Boyer died on February 19, 1973 and was replaced on the team's board of directors by his son-in-law Jack Steele.

The Vikings won their first 9 games of 1973 and finished the season with a 12–2 record. In the playoffs, they defeated the Washington Redskins 27–20 and the Dallas Cowboys 27–10. On January 13, 1974, the Vikings played the 2nd Super Bowl in franchise history, Super Bowl VIII, against the Miami Dolphins at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas. The Dolphins prevailed 24–7.

The Vikings won the Central Division again in 1974 with a 10–4 record. In the playoffs, they built on their cold weather reputation, defeating both the St. Louis Cardinals 30–14 and the Los Angeles Rams 14–10 in frozen Metropolitan Stadium. The Vikings played in their 2nd straight Super Bowl, Super Bowl IX (3rd overall), losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16–6, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans on January 12, 1975. In 1975, Mike Lynn, who had been hired in 1974 as an assistant to Max Winter, was named general manager of the Vikings.

In 1975, the Vikings, led by MVP Tarkenton and running back Chuck Foreman, finished 12–2, losing only to Detroit and Washington while remaining undefeated until late in the season. However, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, 17–14, on a controversial touchdown pass from the Cowboys' quarterback Roger Staubach to wide receiver Drew Pearson that became known as the Hail Mary. On the Vikings' next possession, Tarkenton was sacked just short of the end zone as he stepped back to pass, but the referees refused to penalize Dallas for pass interference. Afterwards, angry fans pelted the field with snowballs and one referee was struck in the head with a beer bottle, mimicking an incident two weeks earlier during the regular season ender in Buffalo where Chuck Foreman was hit in the eye with a snowball.

The Vikings finished 11–2–1 in 1976, winning their division once again and beating Washington at home 35–20. They then won the NFC Championship in the last playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium over the Rams 24–13 to advance to their third Super Bowl in four years. However, a championship continued to elude them when they lost to Oakland 32–14 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA on January 9, 1977. Co-owner Ole Haugsrud died on March 13, 1976 and his widow Margaret took his place on the team's board of directors. In 1977, team attorney Sheldon Kaplan replaced Ridder on the board. In 1978, John Skoglund replaced his father on the team's board of director and general manager Mike Lynn replaced Margaret Haugsrud on the board.

In 1977, Minnesota again won the Central with a 9–5 record, but the team was showing signs of age. Fran Tarkenton had torn his ACL in the previous season's playoff game with the Redskins and lost the ability to perform his trademark scrambling. After years of beating the Los Angeles Rams in frozen Metropolitan Stadium, they finally had to go to Los Angeles for the divisional round due to receiving the #3 playoff seed and being denied home advantage. Instead of bright sunshine there were heavy rains that turned the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum into a mud bath and the Vikings prevailed 14–7. On January 1, 1978, the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in their 4th NFC Championship Game in 5 years at Texas Stadium. Minnesota lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champs, 23–6.

By 1978, age was taking its toll on the Vikings, but they still took advantage of a weak division to make the playoffs with an 8–7–1 record. The team had all but run out of gas as the Rams finally defeated them 34–10 in Los Angeles. Fran Tarkenton retired at the end of the season just short of his 39th birthday. With Tommy Kramer taking over as QB, the Vikings fell to a 7–9 record in 1979. After that season ended, DE Jim Marshall, the last of the inaugural 1961 team, retired.

The Minnesota legislature finally approved a new stadium in 1979, and construction of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome began in December 1979. A domed facility was chosen because of the harsh Minnesota winters and because it could be used for a much wider variety of activities than an outdoor facility.