On Sunday the Minnesota Vikings will play their first game under Head Coach Kevin O’Connell when they are in Las Vegas to take on the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
Kickoff is at 3:25 p.m. The game will be televised on Fox 9 with Paul Allen on play-by-play, Pete Bercich as analyst and Ben Leber on the sideline.
The Raiders can trace their roots traces to Minnesota. Well, kinda.
In the late 1950s, several cities were earmarked for possible expansion for the NFL. Mind you, the league was not going to expand. In fact it was adamant about not expanding into new cities.
Several wealthy businessmen inquired about being owners of an NFL team, mainly expansion into their hometowns. What the NFL told them instead was if they wanted into the league the only route was to purchase an existing team.
Lamar Hunt of Dallas was a young rich oilman. He had tried for years to buy the Chicago Cardinals but to avail. He again went to the NFL and was told by the Commissioner Bert Bell to stop his inquisition about expansion.
So, Hunt went about the business of forming his own league and called it the American Football League.
Hunt knew of a man from Houston who also wanted in on the pro football scene by the name of Bud Adams. In addition to his own Dallas Texans, he contacted Adams and asked if he had any interest in a team. Adams’ new team would be called the Houston Oilers.
Hunt looked for potential owners for other teams. He knew that for the new league to have credibility it needed franchises in New York and Los Angeles. And he had contacts from Minneapolis and Denver.
Hunt felt the Minneapolis franchise was just as crucial to the new league because of the location in the upper Midwest.
One of the men who had petitioned the NFL about an expansion team was Max Winter. He had once been part owner of the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA. When contacted by Hunt, Winter and business partner Bill Boyer jumped at the chance.
Now the AFL had confirmed clubs in Dallas, Houston, Denver and the Twin Cities. Besides Los Angeles and New York, other cities on the agenda were Seattle, Kansas City, St. Louis, Buffalo, Louisville, and Boston. Eventually, Buffalo and Boston would round out the final group.
So the AFL was set to start with eight teams in the fall of 1960.
The next step was to set up a college draft.
Meetings and the draft would be held November 21-23, 1959 in Minneapolis. Representatives and owners from every club were on hand. The assembly was arranged by Winter, Boyer and minority owner H.P. Skoglund.
Meanwhile, representatives from the NFL were in contact with several owners of AFL teams to see if they would prefer to have an NFL expansion team instead. The thought was that if at least two owners accepted franchises, quite possibly the entire structure of the newly formed league would implode and it would close up shop before it ever got going.
Houston owner Adams was offered an NFL expansion for $650,000. Adams declined, saying that he was a man of his word. The owner of the Los Angeles franchise was offered part ownership in the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. Even Hunt was offered half stake in the newly formed Dallas expansion club.
George Halas of the Chicago Bears was the head of the NFL’s Expansion Committee. He set up two meetings with Hunt to discuss closing up the AFL to avoid a financial war.
Hunt countered that he wanted all of the committed AFL teams to merge into the NFL. Halas’ response was that the NFL would add teams in Dallas and Minneapolis in 1960, then add Houston and Buffalo in 1961. He said the NFL had no interest in adding a second team in Los Angeles or New York, and had zero attraction in fielding a team in Denver.
Halas then contacted the principal owners of the Minneapolis team and told them the NFL was definitely expanding into Minnesota and offered them the ownership group.
All of the AFL owners were in a meeting room at the hotel in Minneapolis on the eve before the inaugural draft.
The owner of the New York Titans burst into the room holding a local newspaper with the headline “Minnesota to Get NFL Franchise.” The article explained how Halas had gotten the group to bolt the AFL for the established league and that the new team would begin play in 1961.
The AFL draft went on as scheduled, ironically being hosted by the team that defected the league.
That left the AFL one franchise short of the eight they wanted to start with.
A previous mention had been made for Seattle to gain a franchise but that fell through an agreement couldn’t be reached to play at Husky Stadium.
That’s when Chargers own Barron Hilton told the AFL that if another team wasn't placed in California, he would return his team to the league.
Oakland had not submitted a request for a club, or had a management group in mind. But, with no stadium, no owners, and no real idea, Oakland was given the franchise.
Eight civic leaders from various interests came together to form an ownership group and started working toward assembling a team.
Finding a stadium that would allow them to play, as well proved difficult. UC Berkeley wouldn't allow them to play and there was no suitable stadium within city limits. So the next option was Kezar Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers.
The team was also granted a special Allocation Draft to help fill out its roster, as the players drafted previously by Minnesota had either signed with other clubs or were going to join the new club.
There were several other events that made the team's survival more risky. One was playing the last three games of their home schedule at Candlestick Park.
At the time, this stadium was designed for baseball only, and only because one of the owners was part of the team that designed it, it was determined it would work, if the Raiders would repair any damaged that were incurred.
The team was in debt, but was given a reprieve by Ralph Wilson, another owner in the young league to keep the team afloat. After another full year of playing in Candlestick Park, F. Wayne Valley (one of the team’s owners) threatened to pull the team out of Oakland unless a stadium could be built within the city.
The City of Oakland found a solution and 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field was assembled in short order for the 1962 season.
And all of that occurred before a young coach arrived from San Diego with an interesting plan of spreading the field.
A guy named Al Davis.
Preseason series highlights
Games: 6
Series: Vikings lead 4-2
First meeting: Aug. 25, 1973
Last meeting: Aug. 22, 2015
Current streak: Won 2
Longest Vikings win streak: 2
Longest Raiders win streak: 1
Most Vikings points: 34, 1973
Most Raiders points: 20, 2003
Vikings shutouts: 0
Raiders shutouts: 0
First meeting
The first preseason meeting between the Vikings and Raiders was on Aug. 25, 1973 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. From 1971-75, the Raiders played eight games (seven preseason and one regular season) in Berkeley.
Safety Jeff Wright opened the Minnesota scoring with a 15‐yard interception return as the Vikings beat the Raiders 34‐10.
Rookie running back Chuck Foreman, the team's top draft pick from Miami, ran for touchdowns on runs of 6 yards in the third quarter and 29 in the fourth as the Vikings moved to 3-0 in preseason games.
Link together
The Vikings, Raiders and Miami Dolphins were consistently three of the best teams in the NFL in the early 1970s and they were certainly linked in 1973.
Six days after the Vikings and Raiders played at Berkeley, Minnesota met Miami in a preseason contest at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.
Fran Tarkenton came off the bench in the third quarter to spark the Vikings to a 17‐point rally that led to the Miami’s first loss in a year, 20‐17.
The loss snapped the Dolphins overall unbeaten streak at 23 games.
Trailing 17-3, Tarkenton threw fourth quarter touchdown passes of 16 yards to Ed Marinaro with 7:23 left to play and 14 yards to John Gilliam with 3:14 on the clock.
A second‐year linebacker, Jeff Siemon, picked up a Miami fumble on the Minnesota 37 and ran it back to the Miami 28. The Vikings ran the clock down to two seconds with running plays, called time out and brought in Fred Cox for the winning kick from 25 yards out.
Miami was unbeaten during the 1972 regular season and won Super Bowl VII over Washington 14-7.
On Sept. 16, the Vikings would beat the Raiders 24-16 in the first week of the regular season. Tarkenton threw TD passes of 43 yards to John Gilliam and 9 yards to Chuck Foreman. Bill Brown scored on a 6-yard run and Cox kicked a 22-yard field goal.
In Week 2 on Sept. 23, the Raiders and John Madden ended Miami’s 18-game regular-season winning streak 12-7 in Berkeley. George Blanda accounted for all of Oakland’s scoring as he kicked field goals of 12, 46, 19, and 10 yards.
That was the final season NFL goal posts were on the goal line.
That game was played in front of 74,000-plus fans in Berkeley because the Raiders were not allowed to use Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum until the Oakland A’s were done with their season and they were in the middle of winning three straight World Series.
The Raiders started 1973 at Minnesota, hosted Miami in Berkeley, and then played five straight road games before finally playing in their home stadium on Nov. 4.
Oakland would win the AFC West that season with a 9-4-1 record and beat Pittsburgh 33-14 in the Divisional Playoffs before losing the AFC Championship game at Miami 27-10.
Minnesota started the season 9-0 and eventually won the NFC Central with a 12-2 record. The Vikings won 27-20 at home in the Divisional Playoffs, won the NFC Championship game at Dallas 27-10.
In Super Bowl VIII, the Dolphins would beat the Vikings 24-7 in Houston.
Scores
Preseason scores between the Vikings and Raiders. The Vikings lead the series 4-2. Listed are date and score with site in parenthesis.
08-25-1973: Minnesota Vikings 34, Oakland Raiders 10 (Berkeley)
08-18-1995: Oakland Raiders 20, Minnesota Vikings 17 (Metrodome)
08-22-2003: Minnesota Vikings 21, Oakland Raiders 6 (Oakland)
08-14-2006: Oakland Raiders 16, Minnesota Vikings 13 (Metrodome)
08-08-2014: Minnesota Vikings 10, Oakland Raiders 6 (TCF Bank Stadium)
08-22-2015: Minnesota Vikings 20, Oakland Raiders 12 (TCF Bank Stadium)
The first time
What was number one in the U.S. the first time the Vikings and Raiders played a preseason game?
No. 1 TV show
That was a dead week in the Nielsen ratings, but All in the Family was in the midst of a six-year run as the No. 1 show on TV.
No. 1 movie
“Paper Moon”, starring the real-life father and daughter pairing of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal as protagonists Moze and Addie, was the top movie in the country. It was in its 12th week of release as that was the lone week it held the top spot.
Here’s the trailer:
Tatum O'Neal received widespread praise from critics for her performance as Addie, earning her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. That made her the youngest competitive winner in the history of the Academy Awards.
No. 1 song
"Brother Louie" a cover by the American band Stories was the top song in the U.S. It came about six months after Hot Chocolate's UK hit.
The Stories version reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and sold a million-plus copies to earn a gold disk.
Here is Stories performing their hit song on The Midnight Special:
The Vikings host San Francisco next Saturday.
Judd Zulgad tweeted that Marshall High School graduate Trey Lance is not expected to play for the 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium.