Bud Grant, who led Vikings to 4 Super Bowls in HOF career, dies

Bud Grant , the Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowl appearances, has died at the age of 95, the Vikings announced Saturday. In Grant's 28 seasons as a head coach in Canada and with the Vikings, his teams reached the playoffs 20 times, played in 10 championship games and won four titles. However, none of those titles came in the NFL, as he became the first coach to lose four Super Bowls.

Grant was the first person to be inducted into both the CFL Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He had a career regular-season record of 158-96-5 in the NFL and 102-56-2 in the CFL and went a combined 26-20-1 in the postseason between the two leagues. "No single individual more defined the Minnesota Vikings than Bud Grant," Vikings owners Mark and Zygi Wilf and their family said in a statement. "A once-in-a lifetime man, Bud will forever be synonymous with success, toughness, the north and the Vikings."

Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter remembered Grant for his continued connection to the Hall "well into his 90s." "There are so many adjectives appropriate to describe Coach Bud Grant: legendary, determined, successful," Porter said in a statement. "Underneath his outwardly stoic demeanor that some misunderstood as a coldness laid the warm heart of a man who truly loved his players and the sport of football."

Born Harry Peter Grant Jr., Grant joined the Navy during World War II after graduating from high school in Superior, Wisconsin. At Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, Grant played on a football team coached by Paul Brown, who would become one of the NFL's greatest coaches. Grant later attended Minnesota, where he won nine letters in three sports (football, basketball, baseball) before being drafted by the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers and the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. He chose basketball at first and was a member of the Lakers' 1949-50 championship team.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35835975/bud-grant-led-vikings-4-super-bowls-hof-career-dies

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