Bud Grant, legendary Vikings coach and Minnesota sports figure, dies at 95

Bud Grant epitomized Minnesota toughness. He stalked the sidelines with a whistle around his neck, guiding with a no-nonsense presence. He preached discipline and turned that mentality into four Canadian Football League championships as a head coach and four Super Bowl appearances with the Vikings. He enjoyed fishing and hunting. Heck, he wore short sleeves to a playoff game when he was 88 and it was six-below outside.
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Grant was one of the greatest athletes to come through Minnesota, then its greatest football coach. As a coach, he won more with the Vikings than anyone before or after him and became the only one to guide the team to the Super Bowl. As a player, he was a three-sport standout with the University of Minnesota Gophers, then a professional in both the NBA and NFL.
On Saturday morning, Grant died at the age of 95, the Vikings announced.
We are absolutely devastated to announce legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach and Hall of Famer Bud Grant has passed away this morning at age 95. We, like all Vikings and NFL fans, are shocked and saddened by this terrible news. pic.twitter.com/z2NNlNAY44 — Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) March 11, 2023
Few in this state can match the resume Grant put together in his decades involved in Minnesota sports, highlighted by his run with the Vikings.
He took over a downtrodden franchise in 1967 that had posted just one season with a record above .500 and quickly brought them success similar to how he had done with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The turnaround under Grant was quick. Beginning in his second year at the helm, the Vikings won four straight division titles and 10 of 11, the most successful stretch in franchise history.
Grant took the Vikings to four Super Bowls from 1969 to 1976, including three in a four-year span starting in 1973. They lost all four.
But Grant’s mark in making the Vikings one of the most legitimate franchises in the NFL was made. He led the Vikings for 18 seasons, including 17 straight starting in 1967, and finished with a 158-96-5 record, which earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame. More than five decades after his start in Minnesota, Grant still ranks 17th in all-time NFL wins as a head coach.
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His run in the CFL was even more successful. After four years as a player in Winnipeg, the Blue Bombers made Grant the youngest coach in CFL history and he was on the sideline at 30 years old for his first game. His impact was swift.
Grant’s Blue Bombers reached the Grey Cup in his first year as coach capping a 12-4 season, then followed it with four Grey Cup titles in the next five years, knocking off the Hamilton Tiger-Cats each time.
He left the Blue Bombers for the Vikings after the 1966 season with a 102-56-2 regular-season record and even more impressive 13-4 mark in the playoffs.
Grant got the job in Winnipeg by impressing the team with his ability as a player. He arrived in 1953 after two successful NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles but bolted for the CFL over contract disputes with the Eagles.
He quickly became one of the CFL’s most productive wide receivers, and also played defense, a trait he picked up in the NFL. With the Eagles, Grant led the team in sacks his first season, then moved to receiver and led the team in receiving yards and touchdowns.
But his athleticism was first on display with the Gophers, where Grant was the rare three-sport Division I athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. He was a first-round pick of the Eagles, but played in the NBA for Sid Hartman and the Minneapolis Lakers for two years.
Grant had six children with his wife Pat, who died in 2009. His son, Mike, has won more than 300 games and 11 state titles as the football coach at Eden Prairie High School, and his grandson, Ryan Grant, was a linebacker for the Gophers from 2008-12.
Grant’s influence in Minnesota athletics remained after he stepped away from the Vikings. He remained a consultant with the team and maintained an office at the team’s practice facility. He held regular garage sales to offer his belongings and memorabilia to fans. And he appeared at games, including the Vikings’ playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks in 2016 when Grant wore short sleeves onto the field despite the sub-zero temperature.
GO DEEPER Metrodome pieces, hotel soap and duck decoys galore at Bud Grant’s garage sale
(Photo: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images)