Legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant, father of Eden Prairie football coach Mike Grant, has died

Bud Grant, the legendary head coach, who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowls and was revered by generations of Vikings fans, has died. He was 95.

Grant, the father of Eden Prairie football head coach Mike Grant, passed away Saturday morning, according to a statement released by the Vikings on Twitter.

“We are absolutely devastated to announce legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach and Hall of Famer Bud Grant has passed away this morning at age 95,” the tweet from the Vikings read. “We, like all Vikings and NFL fans, are shocked and saddened by this terrible news.”

The Eden Prairie High School football Twitter account posted a photo of Grant with his son, Mike stating, “We lost an incredible fan in Coach Bud Grant.”

Harry P. “Bud” Grant was born in Superior, Wisconsin, on May 20, 1927. He served in the Navy near the end of World War II before attending the University of Minnesota, where he was a football, basketball and baseball standout for the Golden Gophers in the late 1940s.

In 1950, Grant was drafted in the fourth round by the Minneapolis Lakers and played forward from 1949 to 1951, helping the Lakers win an NBA championship in 1950.

Grant left the Lakers in 1951, turning his attention to football and playing for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1951 to 1952, followed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League from 1953 to 1956.

In 1957, Grant retired from playing football but remained in Winnipeg, where he was the head coach of the Blue Bombers until 1966, leading the team to four CFL titles.

Grant left Winnipeg in 1967 and returned to Minnesota, where he became head coach of the Vikings, leading the team to its first NFL Championship in 1969 as well as their first of four Super Bowl appearances.

Grant coached the Vikings for 18 seasons, retiring after the 1983 season, only to return to the team to coach the 1985 NFL season before retiring for good.

Compiling a regular season record of 158-96-5 with a .620 win percentage, Grant is 19th on the list of all-time winningest NFL head coaches. 

Grant’s steely-eyed stoicism and understated leadership was unmistakeable, capturing the hearts and minds of Minnesotans across decades.

In 1983, Grant was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and, in 1994, was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Upon his retirement from the Vikings, Grant served as a team consultant and kept an office at the Vikings facilities at both Winter Park in Eden Prairie and later at the TCO Performance Center in Eagan.

An avid outdoorsman, Grant was synonymous with Minnesota and known to be far more passionate about hunting and fishing than he was about football, embarking on countless outdoor adventures throughout his life.

Grant is survived by his children Kathy, Laurie, Peter, Mike and Danny, along with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his wife Pat, who passed away from Parkinson’s disease in 2009; and his son Bruce, who died of cancer in 2018. Grant is also survived by his life companion, Pat Smith.