Hey fellow Skoloholics, I have really enjoyed using this website. It really reminds me of one of the first sports forums I ever really frequented was MMAmania and that was before the SB Nation merger. That is how I found the Daily Norseman after the SB Nation merger of MMAmania. I noticed right away a stark difference in what was allowed, I remember mentioning it once and one of the mods at DN saying that MMAmania is the “wild west” of SB Nation lol. But Skoloholics is the best of both worlds imo.
That brings me to the idea of this post to start off the Fan Posts. Let’s hear everyone’s story of how they came to be a Vikings fan, for better or worse we love this team. The connection to MMAmania is there was a guy on there who did a Fan Article called (unmask) and it was a thread where we posted an actual image of ourselves and a page of taking the veil of the keyboard warrior away and it really helped build the community.
So for me being a Vikings fan started with my dad. He has always been a huge Vikings fan, and as you can see I’ve been wearing Vikings gear since I can remember. I have a picture I will upload in the comments (I think, not sure how this works being the first one). I wanted to do a true Then Me, Now Me and post both with the article side by side but it appears I can only upload one. The more recent picture is from getting to go to the Packers game this year with him which really meant a lot. We are kneeling right on his stone by the Vikings ship we got him, it says, “A Family that Skols Together, Stays Together.” He has Parkinson’s and not sure how many more fully functional years we have left so it sure meant a lot to get to that game with him.
So let’s hear it/see it. How did it all start for you? Your journey as a Vikings fan and how you came to this site to become a Skoloholic?
Missed this post but what a good one! Good to see some of ya’ll and hear your stories of how you caught the purple virus. No masks don’t help, maybe blindfolds and there is only one cure. One before we die.
My fandom started way back in 72 or that’s my first memories. My dad in Wva had a high school / college buddy who was a good football player and ended up on the Vikings practice squad in I believe 61 which was the teams first year after being founded in 1960. Anyway that indoctrinated dad as his buddy played a few years and dad followed them in to the merger as a fan. I remember watching the playoff games and SB’s growing up. Went full fandom in the 80’s and then really all in in the 90’s when Sunday Ticket started and I could watch all their games. I got the Vikings Updates from Bob Lurtsema mailed to my house weekly and then in 98 our local kid sports star was drafted by Denny Green and away we went. What a season 98 was, until it wasn’t. I remember one year as a kid wanting to dress up as a purple people eater because I loved our dline and my older sister crafted this costume…I actually walked down main street in the town halloween parade in this lol. Not one of my better moments.
This is awesome! Do you remember the name of your dad’s friend?
Late to this but thanks for posting! Love the “origin stories” of all the Skoloholic Legends!
I was born in SE Minnesota on a Sunday in September. Mom always says Dad was pissed off because he had to miss the Vikes-Bears game that day to…you know…attend my birth. (Vikes won, btw) So I’m a Vikings fan because I was raised that way, in that type of fandom. My childhood Sunday afternoons were me and Dad down in the basement with the fire going and the Vikes on TV. We’d take turns consoling/calming each other when one of us got a little too worked up over a bad play/bad call/bad loss. The most excited I’ve ever seen Dad is Anthony Carter ripping up defenses, and especially San Francisco’s in that playoff game in 87. Scott Studwell was my first football idol, followed by Keith Millard and later John Randle. I was born in ’74 so I’ve seen the most recent generation of heartbreaks starting with Darin Nelson in ’87. I watched the Gary Anderson miss from the electronics section of the base BX from pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, TX because I didn’t have a TV in my dorm. Watched the NO (F those guys) playoff debacle and Blair Walsh miss with my wife, who is also a dedicated fan. Also watched the Minneapolis Miracle (and the gut punch of the Iggles game the following week) with her. I’ve never been more drunk after a football game than the MM. Neighbors still talk about hearing me screaming in drunken joy out into the darkness of the subdivision that night. Dad endured the Super Bowl heartbreaks and Pearson push off in addition to all these more recent disasters. Still chat with Dad every Sunday night, and that day’s Vikes game will always be a topic of conversation. Desperately hope the Vikes can reward his (and my!) loyalty just once before he passes. A kid can dream…
Haha, when I was born my mom made them make sure the gawd damned Nascar race was on the TV lol. Thanks for sharing man.
My love / hate relationship with this team goes back to 1970 when they were in the SuperBowl. I was 6 years old, and my parents had some friends over to watch the game. We had one of those huge console TVs, and I remember the endless food.
Then the game started, and I heard a lot of words I was not allowed to repeat.
Started following them and the 70s had some great teams (and great music).
My mom and my grandpa took me to several games at the met. My mom had some cousins from WI that loved the packers, and my mother hated the packers just because of her dislike for said cousins. Family gatherings were fun back then, since the FTP did mostly suck until Favre.
Saw plenty of games at the Dome. Took my kids to one game each around 1999/2000.
Stuck with the fandom most years. After the 41-0 vs the Giants in the NFCCG I decided to pay less attention to football and my favorite sports were whatever my kids were doing.
2009 was fun.
2010 was not, and I rage quit the team again.
Then Zimmer and Teddy brought me back.
Kirk has me 1/2 interested, and while I love watching football, I have missed 2 of the 4 games since golfing is a higher priority for me for a few more weeks.
I want this team to do well, but I have zero faith in the current QB.
LOVED outdoor football as a child, and my grandpa took me to that Eagles game were it snowed like crazy and there were a ton of turnovers.
The dome was a good TV studio, but I liked the Met better.
Saw 1 game at TCF, and have been to two games at US bank stadium. (Chi and Buffalo, 2018) Kirk played so poorly that I will not go back to that stadium until they have a different QB.
I still feel the game should be played outdoors, but I am now old enough to appreciate not freezing my ass off to watch the team crush my hopes.
Daughter inherited the Vikings fan curse, and watches. My Son is smarter, and pays no attention.
My wife hates Kirk more than I do. I am not allowed to use his real name. He is Dork, asshat, idiot, etc around her.
Rollercoaster ride! lol. The Dome was loud and an ugly, ugly stadium. My cousin had a friend who said when his dad went to the Dome the first time the year it opened he walked in and goes “What a piece of shit!” haha. I don’t think anyone can express that thought with the new stadium.
Yeah, Dome was better for Baseball, but really not good. So many turf injuries over the years. Playing on concrete with a thin fake carpet layer.
Baseball should never be played indoors, IMO.
Grew up in West Texas during the Staubach era but my best friend liked the Rams because he had family in L. A. and he would bring home Rams swag after visiting. I was about 10 years old and, while watching the Vikings “Purple People Eaters” schooling the Rams in the playoffs, I said, “I like the Vikings, they’re better than your team.”
Been a fan ever since. Was sweet when I moved to So Cal in ’74, ‘cuz I got planted in the Rams’ backyard and surrounded by Rams fans. Even better when the Rams moved to Anaheim (where I actually lived). Went to every Vikings/Rams game after that and hosted viewing parties in my garage when they played in MN.
I love these stories, thank you.
Ditto. “Know” most everyone on here from years of comments on DN so it’s cool to read these stories.
Just praying Teddy never ends up in GB! 😱
Being someone that just grew up in it, it’s interesting seeing all these kind of happen stance sort of stories of people getting into the Purple and Skold.
Drew Pearson pushed off
Yes he did.
Absolutely, undoubtedly, factually true.
1967, Dad got won tickets to the Vikings-Giants game, so he took me to my first game. I was a little gumper, but man, I happened to climb on board right before the People People Eaters started chewing teams up one side and down the other and fandom was cemented.
Grandpa and Dad were Viking’s fans from the beginning, while that first game got me rolling in it deep.
Here’s the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation of Viking’s fans smoking a cigar. Just because.
Love the pic!
This is awesome!
That’s an awesome pic!
Born and raised on a farm in west central MN (1961). My Dad never watched football (still doesn’t). I never saw much of the Vikes (crappy TV reception, only one channel, etc) until, in 1970, we happened to be visiting relatives in the Twin Cities. The Super Bowl was on TV and I was hooked. Been a life long fan ever since. Maybe I am the curse?
I remember as a kid when we got our first little black and white tv, with 3 channels.
I recall having a 13 inch black & white in the kitchen.
Had a 25″ console in the living room, I cracked my head open on the corner of that beast one time.
Haha the Vikings are the curse… “There’s always next year!”
I turned the TV on (manually) and I told my dad I wanted to be a Steelers fan and he said no, you need to suffer. that was that
I remember needing to get up, walk to the TV and manually change the channel.
LOL, yep, I remember in the mid-70s we got a UHF antenna and wow, we went from 1 channel to 5 channels. I thought, how could it get any better than this! LOL!
Oh yeah.
I always say being a Vikings Fan taught me perseverance and stick with it-ness lol.
I began my Viking journey with the NFCCG against the team formerly known as the Redskins. I was 6 years old and watched the game with my dad.
We’ve watched several games together since then. My mom has become more of a fan in the last decade or so. I’ve converted my wife (raised a Broncos fan) and successfully doomed my kids to Viking fandom.
Here’s a picture of my wife and I with our three kids. It’s from a few years ago now, but wifey and I are both wearing purple so it’s a good one for here.
I see where your kids got their good looks. (Hint, not from the bald person).
definitely wifey
here’s another fun one
Is the oldest babyppb wearing greg jennings jersey?
yup!
you are almost exactly as I pictured you in my mind PPB.
Nice family and the Mrs has that expression permanently I see from living with you lol….
Cool. Knowing my granddaughters, I’d bet the little girl asked for a pink shirt.
she picked it out and loved it – wore it all the time until it didn’t fit anymore 🙂
pete wears pink too over at purple petunia
LOL, right. pink panties maybe!
Of course I was just messing with you. Handsome family you have there my friend.
I know, I know. I appreciate you, friend. Thanks.
That 87′ NFCCG is one of my first Viking memories as well, I was also 6, when Nelson dropped that pass I was like, that’s ok, they’ll win next year.
heartbreaking
if you could go back 35 and warn yourself, would you?
I don’t think it would have mattered, after I said that my dad just laughed and said I didn’t know anything, which started a short conversation of him telling me how the Vikings were a loser franchise.
Nelson is a super nice guy. He was a “celebrity bartender” at the Applebee’s I worked at two months after that drop. Guy took no end of crap for that drop, and handled drunken fans with class.
Wow! Awesome pic and awesome family! Lucky guy.
amen and thank you
Also, nice looking fam, where’s your bass?
here it is
Can’t decide if you look very content/happy in that pic, or if you’ve had a few too many, lol.
Gotta be content/happy. Look closely and you’ll see a Bible in my hand – we were walking into church.
Didn’t start having beers until afterward!
Very cool. My grandparents started a church in their living room, and donated the land for it to eventually be built on.
what a legacy to have! pretty neat.
I’ll have to find some picture of me with my axe. I’ve played guitar since 7th grade. Played guitar in many bands and bass in a couple bands. Check out this song I did with many buddies over the Covid lock down. I wrote the riffs and had others add bass, drums, vocals, lead all separate and then I mixed it all. What a fun nightmare of mixing haha.
Damn. That woke me up.
Well plaid.
That’s awesome, lovely family PPB!
I remember that game, stupid Darren Nelson.
Awesome pic, too!
Folks who were on the DN when Teddy was drafted know my story, but a brief summary for those who don’t: I was always a college ball girl (University of Louisville), but loved Teddy so much that I followed him to the NFL. I loved my time on the DN back then and learned so much about the NFL from folks on the site. I’ve been an NFL fan ever since. I don’t comment on SBN much anymore since the change to Coral and all the censorship, and greatly appreciate this site.
I was so excited for Teddy. I liked you right away for becoming a Vikings fan just to follow him, and you added a lot of value to DN over the years. 🙂
Thank you PPB! I make it a point to not post much about Teddy here, but FYI Mike McDaniel said a lot of very positive things about Teddy in his presser today, including how much he’s helped Tua and Skyler. Also, as usual, everyone in the organization loves Teddy.
He seems to make things better everywhere he goes, doesn’t he?
You’re a Teddy fan first and a Vikings fan second, which I admire. I’m the other way around, but man, Teddy is something special. I wanted the Vikings to draft him the year before he was even in the draft (thinking he might declare a year earlier). I had been keeping an eye on college QBs since Favre looked like a zombie in the 2010 season, and I was convinced Teddy was our destiny.
I couldn’t believe they drafted Barr at 8 (or 9?) with Bridgewater still on the board, and when they traded back up into pick 32 I held my breath. One of my happiest Vikings memories, honestly.
I wish things had turned out differently, but more importantly I hope Teddy has an awesome life.
Thanks for the story and I was so excited for Teddy! So sad what happened.
That day his knee blew up, I left work & went to the bar. Not kidding. That was obviously back in my drinking days.
Love that story.
Teddy and Zim combo is what brought me back. I bailed in 2010
Sweet jackets there eggslusher, I rocked this one as a child
I still have my jacket lol, I don’t quite fit into it anymore haha. Dude, that jacket is AMAZING!
That’s awesome you still have that jacket, give it to baby eggslusher someday.
I wish. Always wanted kids but probably not gonna happen lol.
Hang onto that to pass down to kids/grands.
LOL, I wish, front is all white and I had it from like age 7-9 so you can imagine how many dirt and food stains it ultimately had. I was actually looking to buy an adult one but they’re like $150.
If you can’t find a professional to restore the front, I would suggest find a seamstress to replace the front. That jacket is worth trying to salvage!
^ that’s a good idea ^
Viking blood in my veins, bout half Scandahoovian. My father didn’t allow any games to be played other than the Vikings, not that there were really any options, we got Viking or Bronco games.
FTP
That’s awesome. My great grandparents on my mom’s side came from Norway. What is QUITE interesting is doing 23 and me I found out my mom’s ancestry never traveled to Norway but rather Scotland/Ireland even though both of her mom’s parents were considered 100% Norwegian. So it’s most probable some female relative on my mom’s side was taken slave from Scotland/Ireland back to Norway and that’s how my Norwegian roots were started.
Ahh, the good old Viking days.
My great grandparents on my dad’s side came over from Sweden. My great grandfather came over and settled in the Lake City area and then went all the way back over to Sweden and got my great grandmother. They got married when they got back to MN. For some reason (it was a long voyage) the first kid arrived about 5 months after they got married.
Very cool story.
I’m half Swedish and half Norwegian. Still ready to pillage!
That’s crazy, I don’t really know the ins and outs of my ancestry but my late grandma was really into it and traced a bunch of my family back to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The 23 thing confirmed it.
very cool.
I’m more german (3/8) than any other country, but I think if I added norway & sweden together I could consider myself mostly viking.
I’m about 50/50 Scandinavian and English per the DNA test thingy.
I was in second grade. I heard other kids talking about football and wanted to be involved. I went home and said, “Mom, I want to watch football.”
So mom started watching the Vikings with me from that day forward. She still watches them. Poor mom. On the plus side, Randy Moss made her super happy to watch.
My dad had zero interest in sports, so he spared himself the Vikings folly.
Moss made us all happy!
That’s a great story. What a supportive mom!
I like yore mom, she seems cool.
Randy Moss was so much fun to watch.
My family moved to Minnesota when I was 6. You would think that is all I would have to say, but I had a few things going against me. My parents were not football fans at all. Probably the biggest thing going against me was that my dad was an old fashioned hell-fire and brimstone preacher and so professional sports (well mostly all sports) were frowned upon. As I get older I think he may have had the professional sports pegged. We also did not have a tv as tv was bad. As I get older I think he may have had that pegged also. However, my mom was a big fan of WCCO AM radio. We listened to that station a lot and of course back then it was the station for Minnesota sports. While my mom didn’t listen to the sports, I enjoyed listening to Ray Christenson announce the Gopher basketball and football. Plus WCCO had Twins baseball and of course Vikings football. I can’t give you a specific day as to when I became a Vikings fan, but growing up in Minnesota and listening to Vikings football eventually made me a fan.
I had a professor in college who didn’t really let their kids watch much TV and they decided they’d watch more TV for the Olympics and one of his kids got mad and confused at the idea of a commercial. He was like, “Where’d the Olympics go, what is this crap?” My professor decided not knowing what a commercial is isn’t really sociologically acceptable so they let them watch a bit more TV lol.
Wow, you had to overcome a lot.
Funny how we start to see things more like our parents did as we get older.
Listening to the Vikings on WCCO was our lunch break when deer hunting on Sundays.
Grandpa always listened to WCCO for the twins game as well.
Life long Vikings fan. I remember watching the first landing on the moon in July 1969. But I have no recollection of the 1969 season or watching the 1970 Super Bowl.
I assume my Dad got interested after that super bowl because I watched every game in the 1970’s as a kid. Fran Tarkenton, Bud Grant and the purple people eaters will always be ingrained in my memory. That is what dominance is and it became my standard for judging the Vikings. That’s my expectation. Call me a doomer all you want.
Well I mean, I don’t think high expectations is dooming. I think dooming is, “We are going to suck!” without evidence to suggest otherwise. I always think error on the side of the positive. At the same time, I have a group of friends where one guy always calls me negative because those years where we knew our interior OL was going to suck because we had guys who have proven to suck. So I guess, whatever lol.
1991, I had recently moved to Montana from Alberta for what I thought would be a temporary stint working as a lab tech coming out of college. The University of Alberta Golden Bears as well as the Edmonton
EskimosElks both sported green and gold colors and I was raised as a Esks and Oilers fan from my earliest memories. One of my enduring sports memories is staying up late with my dad listening on the base radio station to the 1978 Grey Cup when the Esks hung on in the last moments to win over the hated Alouettes. IIRC that game ended about 1 am German time.So back to Montana, post call and short on sleep I thought I would grab a bite to eat at a local bar before heading to the laundromat. There were several NFL games playing and I happened to sit at a table near a TV that was airing the Vikings game. I wish I could remember the player and play but the Vikings did something exciting and I clapped in my sleepy fugue. Bartender said “yer a Vikings fan?”, and I said, “yeah, I guess I am”. I’m glad the Packers weren’t playing or I would have gravitated to their uniform colors.
HA! That’s a good one. Just by happenstance, I heard “yer a Vikings fan?” in Midwest bartender voice in my head when I read it lol.
Eww Packers, whew that was close.
What a funny old thing life is.
I ended up as a Vikings fan by default.
Growing up I was a Cowboys fan (don’t hate me, we lived in Texas at the time) but we moved to Minnesota when I was in high school.
I enlisted three days after high school graduation and ended up in Germany after training.
It was hard to explain where I was from since my parents moved about every year or two, so I was “from Minnesota” and by default was a Vikings fan.
My fandom runs hot and cold depending on what’s going on in real life; I missed the entire 98 season because my wife went into labor with our youngest son at 20 weeks and the 2009 season since I had gone back to school to get my graduate degree.
I don’t put pictures of myself on social media, but the picture in my profile is from 2019 when my wife and I met up with MT and his wife in Minneapolis to watch the Vikings crush the poopeaters.
Were you extra busy in 2017 too? Is there a theme here that for some reason you can’t watch the seasons they do really well… if so… what things can we keep you busy with? lol
I was done with my graduate degree in 2012, I was able to take in all of the 2017 season
actual, I think that was my highest comment total/year at the DN.
makes sense.
I was always kind of a Vikings fan.
Growing up we got together a lot with our extending families and it was always on.. I learned very young that we hate two things… the Packers and the Cowboys. The aints have since been added to that list.
Very accurate. It was always the only thing we hate more than the Cowboys are the Packers and yes the Aints have been on that list since the ’09 season.
I was 6 years old. My dad was a Lions fan and my brother was a Steelers fan. My brother is 17 years older than me and I LOVE to annoy him (to this day), and he hates the Vikings, so that may have influenced my decision.
What really hooked me was the Miracle at the Met. I saw that game, and from then on, the Vikings were my team, and Tommy Kramer was my first football idol.
My ex-father in-law was at that game… AND LEFT EARLY! He said he never left a game early again in his life. lol, could you image, just like the folks that left the Minneapolis Miracle early. I was at the Denver game a few years ago when they had that big comeback. Not nearly as cool but there were people who left at halftime haha.
From the Packer Game by the brick.
Awesome!
My client just got Parkinson’s. It can be dealt with now and it can take a long time to get worse. He could be okay for a long time.
What do you do Five? Yeah his Parkinson’s is very treatable but he’s had it for a while. I worry I’m not being told some things. My mom hinting things, saying my dad’s always wanted to see NYC and we better get it done in the next couple years… Ominous