1898
Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman digs up a slab of rock inscribed with Scandinavian runic script while clearing land on his farm near Kensington. Translated, it reads, “We are 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland.… Year 1362.”
1926
The Leif Erikson, a Viking ship replica built to commemorate the voyage of Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer credited with reaching the North American continent about 500 years before Columbus, sets sail from Norway to Duluth.
1949
A three-sport star at the University of Minnesota, future Vikings head coach Bud Grant signs a professional basketball contract with the Minneapolis Lakers. Less than a week after quitting the U, Grant is in uniform for a Christmas Day game vs. Fort Wayne.
1950
After it’s authenticated by a MN Historical Society study, sold to Alexandria businessmen for $2,000, and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in D.C., the Kensington Runestone is called a fake by Erik Moltke of the Danish National Museum.
1960
Former nightclub owner (and Minneapolis Lakers owner) Max Winter assembles a syndicate to acquire a pro-football expansion team. At the NFL owners meeting in Miami, the league grants teams to Dallas and Minnesota. Minny’s team names itself the Vikings.
1961
On September 17, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, rookie Fran “The Scrambler” Tarkenton quarterbacks the Vikings to a 37–13 victory over the Chicago Bears. The Vikings finish their first season 3–11.
1970
The berserker Vikings defensive front four of Page, Eller, Marshall, and Larsen—nicknamed “The Purple People Eaters” after Sheb Wooley’s No. 1 hit from 1958—are upset in Super Bowl IV by Hank Stram’s Kansas City Chiefs.
1975
The heavily favored Vikings lose in the divisional playoffs when Cowboys WR Drew Pearson clearly pushes off to catch the winning touchdown from Roger Staubach in the closing seconds. The dirty play popularizes the term “Hail Mary pass.” Nice.
1977
From the sideline in Pasadena, California, a very stoic, very Nordic Bud Grant watches his Vikings lose their fourth Super Bowl in seven years when they’re defeated by Austin, MN, native John Madden’s Oakland Raiders 32–14 in Super Bowl XI.
1981
A show of Vikings-era art and artifacts breaks attendance records at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The star: a 76-foot-long replica longship, the Hjemkomst, built by Moorhead junior high guidance counselor Bob Asp.
1998
Novelist Tom Clancy wins a bid to become the new owner of the Minnesota Vikings, but his financing falls apart. The team is sold to Texas billionaire Red “Purple Pride” McCombs for $250 million.
1999
Led by electrifying rookie Randy Moss, the Vikings win a franchise record 15 games. They host the NFC Championship Game in the Dome. Kicker Gary Anderson, who hasn’t missed all year, hooks a 38-yard chippy that would’ve sealed it. The Vikings lose in OT.
2000
Geologist Scott Wolter, president of American Petrographic Services, is tapped by the Kensington Runestone Museum to perform “an autopsy” on the 202-pound rock. He believes it’s authentic based on geology and linguistics.
2005
The most notorious Viking ship in our history: the two Al and Alma’s Charter Cruises yachts that hosted a party with 17 Vikings players and allegedly several flown-in sex workers during the team’s Oct. bye week.
2009
Former Packer Brett Favre de-fects to the Vikes, leads them to a 12–4 season, then throws a crucial interception in the NFC Championship Game, and the Vikes lose in OT.
2010
A blizzard causes the Metrodome’s roof to collapse, and America laughs. The humiliation breathes new life into stadium negotiations. The state makes a deal with the Wilf family to fund a $1 billion glass longship, complete with a massive Gjallarhorn.
2018
Down 24–23 to the Saints with 10 seconds to go, the Vikings’ hopes for a home-field Super Bowl look dicey, but the Saints whiff on Stefon Diggs as he scores a 61-yard walk-off “Minneapolis Miracle.” The Vikes lose another NFC Championship the following week.
2019
The American Swedish Institute debuts The Vikings Begin, an exhibition focused on the Vendel Period—a complex era of trading, spirituality, and mythology near modern-day Uppsala that began two centuries before the Viking Age.
2025
The hopes of an entire modern Nordic civilization rest on the 22-year-old shoulders of J.J. McCarthy, our rookie Vikings quarterback. Will he lead us to Valhalla (the state’s first Super Bowl win), or are we destined for another cycle that ends in Ragnarok?