Bud Grant

SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN HALL OF FAME
1991 INDUCTEE

Only one man has won more professional football games as a head coach than Bud Grant – the legendary George Halas with 326 victories.

Grant, a head coach for 28 seasons, won a total of 290 regular and post-season games – 122 as coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League from 1957 -1966 and 168 as coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 1967-1983, and 1985.

In 18 years as head coach of the Vikings, his teams compiled a regular-season record of 158-96-5, made the playoffs 12 times, and won 15 championships: 11 Central Division (1968-71, 1973-78, and 1980), one NFL (1969) and three NFC (1973, 1974 and 1976). The Vikings, under Grant, played in four Super Bowls.

Bud Grant’s coaching career began in 1957 when, at age 29, he jumped directly from the player ranks to the head-coaching job with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL. He had been the Blue Bombers’ top pass receiver and also a starting cornerback. During four CFL seasons, he caught 216 passes and led the league in receptions three times. He also set a pro football record of five interceptions in one game.

One May 20, 1927, in Superior, WI, his Swedish-American mother gave birth to a baby boy whose athletic skills would see him honored as Minnesota’s Athlete of the Half Century in 1950. He played football, basketball and baseball during high school and college. After two World Champion seasons with the Minnesota Lakers pro-basketball team, Grant was drafted into pro-football.

Grant is an avid hunter, fisherman and naturalist. He spends much of his free time with his family at their lake home in Northern Wisconsin. Bud and his wife, Pat, have six children. The family home is in Bloomington, MN.