On Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings open their preseason schedule at U.S. Bank Stadium vs. the Denver Broncos.
It will be the 13th time the teams have met during the preseason.
While the results of exhibition games are said to be meaningless, you couldn't prove that by the 1967 Broncos in their first contest against the Vikings.
You see, 1967 was the first season that National Football League teams played American Football League teams in preseason contests.
The AFL was founded in 1959, played its first games in 1960 and had merged with the NFL in 1966. However, the leagues would not begin regular season play as common opponents until 1970.
The Green Bay Packers had defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 on Jan. 15, 1967 in Los Angeles in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which would retroactively be called Super Bowl I.
National media proclaimed that it would be years before the AFL teams would be competitive with NFL squads. That gave AFL teams motivation for the exhibition games, which were deemed largely meaningless by their NFL brethren.
The leagues then scheduled 16 exhibition games in 1967, starting on Aug. 5 with the Broncos upending the Detroit Lions 13-7 at Denver University Stadium.
There were two more interleague games the next week with the Baltimore Colts defeating the Boston Patriots 33-3 in Cambridge, Mass. and Detroit winning 19-17 over the Buffalo Bills in Detroit. That was one of only two games hosted by the NFL team.
Minnesota opened its exhibition season under first-year head coach Bud Grant with a 34-0 win over the Eagles in Tulsa.
Denver also had a first-year head coach, Lou Saban. The Broncos were 1-1. They had dropped their opener to the Miami Dolphins 19-2 in Akron, Ohio on July 29.
Denver played its home games at Bears Stadium, which was named after the city's minor-league baseball team. The Bears were at home on Aug. 18, so the Broncos and Vikings had to schedule their game at Hilltop Stadium at Denver University.
The game attracted a sellout crowd of 31,850. Denver would defeat Minnesota 14-9.
The Vikings would go 2-4 that exhibition season (yes, they played six preseason games. The NFL is now down to three preseason contests).
After the loss to the Broncos, they lost 21-3 to the New York Giants in New Haven, Conn. on Aug. 27.
On Sept. 2, the Vikings defeated the Atlanta Falcons 16-3 as part of an NFL doubleheader in Cleveland. The Browns lost to the Green Bay Packers 30-21 in the nightcap.
The Vikings then closed out the exhibition season with a 42-14 loss to the Browns at Metropolitan Stadium on Sept. 10.
Minnesota would compile a 3-8-3 record during the regular season.
The Vikings would then go 8-6 and win the NFL Central Division title in 1968 for the team's first playoff appearance.
Grant would retire as the eighth-most successful coach in NFL history with a record of 161-99-5. In his tenure, Minnesota won 11 division titles, one NFL championship and three NFC titles.
Denver would finish the 1967 preseason with a 4-2 record and then went 3-11 during the regular season.