1968 Minnesota Vikings

this is the national football league central division where four ferocious teams compete for a single title be it the minnesota vikings or the detroit lions the chicago bears of the green bay packers it is football at its fiercest this is the story of a team which fought from the bottom to the top the story of the way up for the minnesota vikings any championship team begins with superior leadership such as the vikings have in coach bud grant and quarterback joe camp the cornerstone of the viking offense was number 53 mick tinglehoff he was voted best in the league for the fifth straight year behind such blocking dave osborne was the league's second leading rusher in 67 in 68 osborne was injured but number 26 second year man clint jones ran well in his place as always the man counted on for the tough yardage was number 30 230 pound fullback bill brown whose balance and determination have carried him through nfl defenses for over 4 400 tough yards this year brown as usual was among the top 10 rushers and was second in the league in touchdown he ended an exceptional season by ramming over for the winning touchdown in a pro bowl game to stop bill brown requires something special like a giant or an entire team of near giants when in trouble viking quarterbacks look for bill brown not only the vikings all-time leading rusher he is also their all-time leading receiver either way it adds up to a lot of head knocking number 15 is gary cuazo a man who spent four years learning from john united playing only part-time cuaso has thrown for more than 3 000 yards unfortunately he was injured for more than half of last season there were in fact only three nfl quarterbacks who played the entire season it is not difficult to understand why fortunately for the vikings joe capp is one of the toughest men in football [Music] how does a quarterback avoid such pressure the classic way is to throw over it but joe cap is not a classic quarterback he is a fighter concerned more with results than style he does not scramble he runs he does not try to escape he attacks he runs over and through people at the rate of more than five yards per try joe capp is not a classic quarterback he is a winning quarterback cap's receivers mirror his own toughness second year tight end john beasley number 87 is good in a crowd number 86 flanker tom hall is a battler who will somehow come down with the ball [Music] but the vikings primary long-range weapon is number 84 second year split in gene washington the ex-big ten hurdles champion is already among the nfl's top receivers this season even the vikings special teams had long distance scoring capability with two flashy young rookies one was number 20 bob bryant from south carolina the other was charlie west from texas el paso against washington west number 40 retreated to his own two-yard line to feel the punt and then proceeded 98 yards up field to tie an nfl record which had stood for 35 years [Music] says bud grant offense sells tickets defense wins games but with a wrecking crew such as the vikings have the defense also sells tickets minnesota's defense was more cohesive than ever mistakes were rare the viking defense was the sure-handed interception by ed sherrockman and the grab of a deflection by irsel mcbee a blocked punt by carl kaselki a slashing tackle by dale hackbart or one of the team record seven interceptions by number 22 paul krauss the viking defense was also a big play by a linebacker roy winston slamming a receiver wally hilgenberg cutting down a sweep lonnie warwick rattling a receiver or acting as attorney for the defense [Music] [Applause] but most of all the viking defense was a brilliant front four which included number 77 gary larson a defensive rock all season and number 88 alan page who has the quickness and speed to catch up with halfbacks [Music] and number 81 carl eller who is so fast he can be blocked out and still recover in time to make the tackle green bay's woolly davis used to be an automatic all-pro this year carl eller replaced him and then there was number 70 defensive captain jim marshall who has speed enough to deflect a pass and still catch the receiver quickness and determination have made him one of the league's best pass rushers as marshall says the best plan is for the four of us to meet at the quarterback 44 times the plan worked paige eller and marshall all played in the pro bowl jim marshall made the game's deciding play when he scrambled an ex-viking quarterback named tarkington [Music] saturday night september 14th joe cap and the vikings had the honor of opening the nfl's 49th season and they did it in style capp hit on 16 of 20 passes including 11 straight at one point as the vikings exploded to a 31-0 halftime lead over the atlanta falcons the final score was 47-7 as the vikings began their championship drive with the largest point total in their eight-year history [Music] the next objective for bud grant and the vikings was to defeat super champion green bay in milwaukee in only the second week of the season this was to be one of the year's most important games [Music] the vikings did not simply defeat green bay they dominated them from start to finish [Music] when it was all over bill brown had rampaged through the packers for his fourth and fifth touchdowns of the young season for the third straight time and for the fourth time in five tries minnesota had beaten green bay on the packers own grounds more important the vikings had the best start in their history and sold possession of first place in the central division [Music] following a disappointing loss to chicago the vikings faced detroit in a head-to-head battle for first place the viking defense ruined quarterback bill munson's offensive efforts all afternoon forcing fumbles deflecting passes and dumping munson and even 10 times but the lions also wielded a bludgeon joe capp was forced out early with a concussion gary cuazo came to the rescue but was quickly rewarded with a broken collar bone cuazo knew his shoulder was gone he not only stayed in the game he painfully completed five of seven passes and led the vikings on a 79-yard drive to a halftime lead by the second half a dazed but courageous joe cap had recovered his senses sufficiently to lead the vikings to two more touchdowns both scored by league leader bill brown and minnesota had regained sole possession of first place after two tough setbacks it was time to avenge the earlier loss to chicago's gruesome bears the viking defense continued to destroy the opposition surpassing even the destructive play of the historically brutal bear [Music] one young chicago back learned that pointing is not considered polite [Music] quarterback virgil carter had one weapon that no defense ever stops for very long number 40 gail sayers accounted for over 200 yards in total offense all by himself [Music] but the vikings had a receiver named washington who accounted for 133 yards and two touchdowns trailing by six points with only one minute left in the game capped through toward the end zone the ball somehow materialized in washington's hand and the vikings had pulled out a great comeback victory but the bears would not roll over dick gordon returned fred cox's kickoff to the chicago 41. cecil turner survived the savage tackle at the viking 40 and with only three seconds left mack percival kicked from the viking 47. the vikings great comeback victory lay trampled in the bedroom of wrigley field instead of closing out the first half of the season on top of their division the vikings were suddenly below 500 for the first time and were tied for second with the jubilant bears the vikings opened the second half of the season against the washington redskins sonny jurgensen's aerial circus was grounded by the viking defense eight times the quarterback fell the viking defense bewildered the redskins to a point of utter confusion [Music] the vikings offense was also sizzling clint jones and bill brown rolled through the redskins like bowling balls through duckpin joe capp threw two more touchdown passes one of them a classic 61-yard bomb to gene washington the vikings had snapped back from their last second defeat by chicago and had completely outclassed the redskins [Applause] once again back in the championship race the vikings next goal was to defeat the still very much alive green bay packers for a record second time in one season the grimly determined packers would not go quietly carl eller number 81 wrecked the packer sweep from behind he blocked out half the green bay line for bill brown and he gave bart starr an afternoon he will never forget [Music] before one of five home sellout crowds which established a new season's attendance record the first place vikings not only had swept the packers series for the first time but they had also knocked the former world champions to the bottom of the central division on a dark rainy evening in detroit the vikings in their last game against the central division rival were determined to send the lions into oblivion with a sweep of their season series just as they had done to the packers the previous week they succeeded mainly due to fred cox's field goal accuracy and the kind of defensive play which has long characterized the teams of the central division in the second half the viking defense held the lions offense to a net total of minus four yards this is the way football is played in the central division [Music] the play which swept the vikings to their third straight victory and sold possession of first place was a long pass from joe capp to tom hall which led to the game's only touchdown play a jim limsy plunge behind a good block by doug davis after rough losses to baltimore in los angeles the vikings had two games to play and two games to win the first was in soggy san francisco trailing 3-0 charlie west ignited the vikings with an 82-yard kickoff return to the 49ers 12-yard line from there joe capped through bill brown dove and the vikings were never behind again cap met the challenge by hitting on 10 of 16 passes one of them to gene washington for 50 yards and when the attack bogged down cap scored the touchdowns himself joe capp has to be one of the toughest men in football [Music] while the vikings were surviving the tortures of khizar several hundred miles to the south the chicago bears without gail sayers shocked the nation by staggering the highly favored los angeles rams with one game to go the vikings and the bears were tied for the lead and so to mid-december in philadelphia and the season's final 60 minutes the eagles after a disastrous early season had won two straight and were ready for a third if the vikings were to win their first championship they first had to win this game [Music] the defense seemed to have the game well under control until the sam baker punt turned into one of the weirdest plays of the season [Music] then the vikings old pros took over joe capp captain grady alderman bill brown but mostly joe cap just as he had in san francisco the week before joe capp took charge of the game [Music] cap completed seven of ten passes ran for one touchdown and threw for two more one was a perfect bomb to gene washington the other was one of the season's great plays it was partly joe capp the rest was bill brown their eight-year climb had brought the vikings almost to the summit but not quite in chicago the packers and bears were still playing and they would have the final say if the bears won the championship was theirs if the packers won the championship would at last belong to the vikings all coach bud grant and his team could do now was wait and hope that the green bay packers would win at first their cause seemed hopeless [Music] the spider up start the packers surged ahead but then the bears begin to fight their way back [Music] suddenly a mack percival field goal would be enough to win the championship for the bears [Music] one more pass would get them close enough and then it happened green bay's ray nichky was suddenly transformed into a viking hero the bears had fallen short by a single point after eight long years of waiting the minnesota vikings were champions even the remarkable bears and the former world champion packers knew that the vikings had earned the championship [Music] over 60 000 fans huddled against the rain and sleep in baltimore's memorial stadium as the vikings met the baltimore coast for the western conference championship and the biggest game in viking's history [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] wait a minute at first it was all minnesota although the vikings were unable to score [Applause] then lightning struck earl morrow threw just over the hands of roy winston the number 88 john mackey [Applause] within two minutes the colts had scored twice says coach grant you can tell the worth of a team by the way it reacts when it falls two touchdowns behind a mentally disciplined team goes on playing its own game [Applause] bill brown and the rest of the vikings played their own game to the final gun cap despite a brutal beating set a team passing record hitting 26 of 44 passes against one of football's greatest defensive teams on one of football's sloppiest fields [Applause] in the end the vikings had outgained the colts by more than 50 yards but they had lost [Music] in 1958 in his second year as coach bud grant led the winnipeg blue bombers from nowhere to the canadian football league championship he went on to dominate canadian football in 1968 again in his second year as coach bud grant led the minnesota vikings from nowhere to the championship of the nfl's violent central division it is a good bet that coach bud grant and his vikings are still on the way up

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 2,656

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: NFL Films, Steve Sabol, Ed Sabol, Minnesota Vikings, Bud Grant, Joe Kapp, Jim Marshall, Alan Page

Id: A4eoysDm5Hs

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020