The coaching history of the Minnesota Vikings:
Norm Van Brocklin 1961-66
Bud Grant 1967-83,85
Les Steckel 1984
Jerry Burns 1986-91
Dennis Green 1992-2001
Mike Tice 2001-05
Brad Childress 2006-10
Leslie Frazier 2010-13
The Minnesota Vikings are looking for a head football coach. In just over a half century of football, this is only the fourth time that the Vikings have actually looked for a head football coach. In the first forty years, the Vikings had five head football coaches. In the last thirteen years, the Vikings have had four head football coaches. It's not too difficult to guess when the Vikings experienced their greatest on-field success. The most striking aspect of the coaching history of the Minnesota Vikings is the number of in-house hires. They have hired from within their own building five times. The most unusual of those hires took place over the rough early years of the 1980s. After the brilliant, but Super Bowl title-lacking, 1970s, the Vikings started sliding as they slipped into the 1980s. Bud Grant ended his 17-year, Hall of Fame coaching career following the 1983 season. Many, including a younger me, assumed that long-time offensive coordinator Jerry Burns would be promoted. Didn't happen. Offensive assistant Les Steckel got the job. Burns remained as offensive coordinator. Grant went hunting. 1984 was the worst season in Minnesota Vikings history. Steckel was fired. Grant came back from the woods for one more season. Burns remained as ofensive coordinator. Grant retired again following the 1985 season. Burns was finally promoted. Fun times. Over the three-year period from 1984-86, the Vikings hired from within their own building three times. Burns brought some stability. He definitely brought some entertainment to press conferences. The Vikings kept their coaching hires within their own building two more times in the 2000s. Mike Tice and Leslie Frazier each had "interim" removed from their title of interim coach. Tice was given four years to succeed. Frazier was given three years to succeed. Each squeezed one playoff appearance out of their teams.
Minnesota Vikings coaching searches have found Norm Van Brocklin, Bud Grant, Dennis Green, and Brad Childress. All but Van Brocklin came real close to the ultimate coaching prize. Grant took four Vikings teams to the Super Bowl. Green's 1998 team and Childress' 2009 team are two of the best football teams to not get to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. Van Brocklin was fresh off an NFL championship with the Philadelphia Eagles as a player. He had just ended his Hall of Fame quarterback career with a win in the 1960 title game when the expansion Vikings gave him a call. I've heard some mention that Grant was the Vikings top choice to lead the brand new NFL team. If Grant was offered the job, he decided to continue his Hall of Fame coaching career in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Van Brocklin did fairly well considering his lack of experience and never really getting along with his quarterback, Fran Tarkenton. The Vikings finally got Grant to leave Canada in 1967. He was awesome. The Vikings didn't search for another head coach for twenty-five years. In 1992, the Vikings pulled Dennis Green away from Stanford. He was terrific in the regular and mediocre, at best, in the postseason. In 2006, the Vikings hired Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress. He was building something pretty great until he lost control of the team in the disastrous 2010 season. Childress' tenure of just over four seasons was the shortest of those found in a Vikings coaching search. Grant's 18 years was the longest. One interesting aspect of the Vikings coaching searches is that three of the four coaches hired had connections with the Eagles. Van Brocklin and Grant played for Eagles. Childress coached for the Eagles. That probably interests only me.
Van Brocklin resigned. Grant retired. Twice. Steckel was fired. Burns retired. Green was fired. Tice was fired. Childress was fired. Frazier was fired. That's how it's gone in Minnesota, to date.
I was once fairly proud of the Vikings coaching history. That was back in the 1990s. That was in the middle of Green's fairly successful run. Other teams were firing and hiring at a machine gun rate. At that point, the Vikings coaching history was Van Brocklin, Grant, a hiccup with Steckel, Burns, and Green. It was four decades of pretty much consistently competitive football with stable coaching. It was nice. No Super Bowls. Which was very sad but there was nice franchise stability. The past decade has seen mostly unstable coaching in Minnesota. Not so nice. That has to change with this coaching search.
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