Minnesota Vikings legendary head coach Bud Grant has passed away at age 95, the team announced early on Saturday. Grant was the Vikings’ head coach from 1967 to 1983 and returned for a final season in 1985.
Before joining Minnesota, he was the head coach for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL from 1957 to 1966. He was the first coach to lead teams in the Grey Cup (CFL) and the Super Bowl (NFL), with Marv Levy becoming the second in 1990.
He played in both the NBA and the NFL before becoming a football head coach. He won an NBA championship with the Minneapolis Lakers (later renamed the Los Angeles Lakers) in 1950. He was drafted as a wide receiver by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1950 NFL Draft.
Bud Grant’s Career: Legendary Coach Played in Two Different Major Leagues
When the legendary Viking was a child, he suffered from poliomyelitis, and a doctor advised him to participate in sports to strengthen his weakened leg muscles. He attended the University of Minnesota and excelled in baseball, basketball, and football.
He played for the Eagles for two years before joining the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1953, where he later became head coach four years later. The Bombers were his only CFL team, just like the Vikings in the NFL.
Grant had a stellar coaching career, finishing with a 118-64-3 record in the CFL (.646) and a 168-108-5 record in the NFL (.607). He did not win a Super Bowl as a head coach, but he did win the NFL in 1969, the final season before the merger of the AFL and the NFL. In Super Bowl IV that year, the Vikings were defeated 23-7 by the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
He continued to have his own office at the Vikings’ facility until his death, as he was listed as a team consultant after retiring. Pat Grant, his wife, died of Parkinson’s disease in March 2009 at 81.
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