NOTE: This is a history piece that I would like to do more of but never seem to get done. If you have a topic you want to suggest, let me know @sportsdr44@hotmail.com.
A couple of notable events in Minnesota Vikings history have occurred on this date, Dec. 14. Both happened at the team’s first home, Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.
The first didn’t have anything to do with the game being played between the Vikings and 49ers in 1969.
11-year-old Rick Snyder’s parents owned a hot air balloon and were at the stadium to participate in a halftime show that was going to promote the upcoming St. Paul Winter Carnival.
Rick and his mom climbed into the red-and-white-striped hot-air balloon gondola at halftime.
Five men were holding a 200-foot mooring line, but when the balloon didn’t rise, Mrs. Snyder hopped out to lighten its load and the balloon jerked upward mightily, the mooring line now dangling free. And there went the kid, Rick, just missing the right-field light towers on his journey across southeast Bloomington.
Rick had flown a few times but never without a tether. The fans in the stadium could not see what was happening. And a crew frantically ran out to the parking lot to assemble a chase crew.
There was plenty of possible trouble, but Rick remained calm. Not only was he flying into the path of the oncoming air traffic at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, but he disappeared into the clouds.
The Federal Aviation Administration stopped all air traffic while the wayward balloon proceeded to the southeast. Snyder was able to release some of the hot air, and the balloon quickly descended and splashed down directly into the frigid and slush-filled waters of the Minnesota River.
The basket tipped on its side when it hit the water and he swam 25 yards to shore. An unidentified motorist picked him up and took him back to the stadium, where one of the Vikings doctors checked him out and said, “He’s OK.”
This was well before cell phones, social media, texts and cable news. Rick’s parents and Winter Carnival officials were still chasing the balloon, unaware that he had been rescued.
“I didn’t get too scared,” Ricky said that afternoon, “until I saw the river. Before that, I kept my cool. I was pretty high. I’d say 1,000 feet. I was in the clouds part of the time. I was working the propane burner, too.”
“He flew the balloon so beautifully,” his mom said that day. “He did all the right things.”
That was then. In a 2019 Pioneer Press story on the 50th anniversary of the event, Snyder said that he had no interest in ballooning whatsoever.
The fabric balloon is on permanent display at Wings Museum of the North in Eden Prairie.
For the record, the Vikings won the game 10-7 for their 12th straight win and put their record at 12-1. They would go on to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV in New Orleans.
Miracle at the Met
If you’re reading this and your name is Molly Hunt, you may want to stop reading at this point.
This is the Vikings 64th season in the NFL and they’ve only played the Cleveland Browns 17 times. Minnesota leads the series 13-4.
One of those games did produce one of the more improbable finishes in team history.
On Dec. 14, 1980, Cleveland led 23–9 in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings would come back to win.
Quarterback Tommy Kramer passed for two touchdowns to wide receiver Ahmad Rashad in the last two minutes, including a 46-yard Hail Mary pass caught with one hand on the last play of the game.
On the sidelines with a camera that day was a young sports writer for the Albert Lea Tribune named Lee Larson.
I know you could see me on the NFL Films highlights standing up in slow motion from a kneeling position as some players were going out of bounds. VCRs or any means of recording TV were not common at the time so I can remember setting the alarm for 2:30 in the morning to get up and watch myself on Inside the NFL on HBO. Have tried several ways of locating that clip on youtube in recent years but have not been successful.
Again, if you have any events local, statewide or beyond you’d like to read about, let me know. They don’t have to be tied to a specific date or sport that is in season.