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TheMinnesota Vikings are a professionalAmerican football team based inMinneapolis,Minnesota. The Vikings are members of theNorth Division of theNational Football Conference in theNational Football League (NFL). The club was founded by Minneapolis businessmenBill Boyer,H. P. Skoglund andMax Winter in 1959 as a member of theAmerican Football League. However, they forfeited their membership in January 1960 and became the National Football League's 14th franchise in 1961.[1]
There have been ten head coaches in the history of the franchise,[2] beginning withNorm Van Brocklin, who was head coach for six seasons between1961 and1967.[3] Van Brocklin's successor,Bud Grant, is the only coach to have had more than one tenure with the franchise, and also the only one to have won anNFL championship with the team, at the1969 NFL Championship Game.[4][5] Grant is the all-time leader in games coached (243), wins (151), andwinning percentage (.620).[4]Les Steckel has the worst winning percentage of the franchise's ten head coaches (.188), with just three wins in his only season in charge.[6] Two Vikings coaches have been inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame: Grant and Van Brocklin, although Van Brocklin was elected for his playing career.[7]Mike Tice is the only former Vikings player to have become a head coach for the franchise.[8] Dennis Green was the first African American head coach in franchise history. Former defensive coordinatorLeslie Frazier, who took over as interim head coach fromBrad Childress after the latter was fired on November 22, 2010,[9] was the team's head coach from January 3, 2011, until December 30, 2013, when he was fired after compiling a21–32–1 record as head coach.[10] On January 15, 2014, the Vikings appointedMike Zimmer as the team's ninth head coach.[11] He served for eight years until being fired on January 10, 2022, compiling a72–56–1 record with the team.[12] Two days after he helped theLos Angeles Rams to victory inSuper Bowl LVI as their offensive coordinator, the Vikings signedKevin O'Connell to be their 10th head coach in team history.
Following the Minnesota Vikings' admission to theNational Football League, there were ultimately two candidates for the position of head coach:Philadelphia Eagles quarterbackNorm Van Brocklin andWinnipeg Blue Bombers head coachBud Grant. Van Brocklin was favored by three of the Vikings' five board members, and after discussions with the franchise management on January 18, Van Brocklin signed an initial three-year contract and was appointed as head coach on January 18, 1961.[13][14] In Van Brocklin's first season in charge of the Vikings, the team won just three of their 14 games, a record that got worse before it got better. The team had a record of2–11–1 in Van Brocklin's second season as head coach, but improved to8–5–1 in the1964 season.[3] However, this was not enough to reach the NFL Championship Game as the team finished tied for second place in the Western Conference.[15]
By Van Brocklin's final season at the helm, his relationship with starting quarterbackFran Tarkenton had deteriorated to the point that the two could no longer work together. This resulted in Van Brocklin's resignation on February 11, 1967, shortly followed by Tarkenton being traded to theNew York Giants.[16][17] In the search for Van Brocklin's replacement, Vikings founderMax Winter and general managerJim Finks re-approached Bud Grant, who joined the Minnesota side on March 10, 1967, after 10 seasons coaching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.[18] With a record of8–6, the Vikings finished top of their division in Grant's second season in charge, reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. However, they lost out to theBaltimore Colts 24–14 in their Western Conference Championship Game.[19] The following year, they went two better by beating theLos Angeles Rams and theCleveland Browns to claim the NFL Championship, before losing out to theKansas City Chiefs 23–7 inSuper Bowl IV.[20] Nine more divisional titles followed in the next 11 seasons, including NFC Championships in1973,1974 and1976, making Grant the first head coach to lead a team to four Super Bowls, although he won none of them.
Grant retired as head coach after the1983 season, and was replaced by receivers coachLes Steckel in January 1984.[21] However, under Steckel, the team had their worst season since1962, only managing to win three of their 16 games in1984.[6] After Steckel was fired, Grant was coaxed out of retirement to replace him for the1985 season.[22] After Grant's second retirement, Vikings assistant coachJerry Burns was named as his successor.[23] Burns' tenure as head coach lasted for six seasons, including three playoff appearances, one of which resulted in a loss to theWashington Redskins in the 1987 NFC Championship Game.[24][25]
Burns retired from coaching at the end of the1991 season,[26] and the Vikings turned toStanford Cardinal head coachDennis Green as his successor, making Green the first African American head coach in franchise history.[27] In the first nine years of Green's tenure with the Vikings, the closest he came to a losing record was an8–8 record in1995, the only season in which his team missed the playoffs.[28] Three years later, Green's team played out the best season in franchise history, losing only to theTampa Bay Buccaneers on the way to a15–1 record.[29] The team received a bye to the Divisional Playoffs, in which they beat theArizona Cardinals to set up a Conference Championship Game against theAtlanta Falcons.[29] With six minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Vikings in the lead at 27–20, they drove down the field to set up a 38-yard field goal for kickerGary Anderson, who had not missed a single kick all season. A successful kick would have given the Vikings a two-score lead with just over two minutes left to play, but Anderson hooked his kick wide left, allowing the Falcons to take the ball back downfield for a game-tying touchdown. They followed this with a field goal in overtime, denying the Vikings a fifth Super Bowl appearance.[30]
Green's 10th season at the Vikings helm turned out to be his final year in Minnesota; with a5–10 record with one game remaining in the2001 season, the Vikings management bought out the final two years of Green's contract and promoted offensive line coach and former tight endMike Tice to the top job for the final game of the season.[31] Tice remained in the job for a further four seasons, but only reached the playoffs once, losing out to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Playoffs of the2004 season.[8] Tice's contract was allowed to expire at the end of the2005 season, and he was quickly replaced by Eagles offensive coordinatorBrad Childress.[32] After Childress' first season in charge, the Vikings' regular season record improved by two wins a season from6–10 in2006 to12–4 in2009. They reached the playoffs as NFC North champions in consecutive years in 2008 and 2009; they lost out to Childress' former team, the Eagles, in the 2008 NFC Wildcard game, but beat theDallas Cowboys in the 2009 Divisional game to reach their first NFC Championship Game since2000. However, they lost to theNew Orleans Saints and missed out on the Super Bowl.[33] The following season, the Vikings picked up just three wins in their first 10 games; after the seventh defeat of the season, Childress was fired and defensive coordinatorLeslie Frazier took over as interim head coach.[9] Frazier was named head coach on a permanent basis on January 3, 2011, but his first full season in charge saw the Vikings finish with a3–13 record. The following year saw a dramatic turnaround as the Vikings finished at10–6 in2012, just edging out theChicago Bears to make the playoffs as the NFC's sixth seed with a win over theGreen Bay Packers in week 17; however, the team slumped again in2013, as a final5–10–1 record ultimately saw Frazier fired on December 30, 2013.[34]
On January 15, 2014, the Vikings announced the hiring of theCincinnati Bengals' defensive coordinatorMike Zimmer as head coach, and in his first year at the helm, the team finished at7–9, just missing the playoffs. The Vikings again improved to11–5 in 2015, beating the Packers in week 17 to win theNFC North for the first time since 2009 and snapping a streak of five consecutive titles by Green Bay; however, they went on to lose to the Seattle Seahawks in the wildcard round of the playoffs. After going5–0 to start the2016 season (which was their first season in their newly completedU.S. Bank Stadium) despite a slew of injuries, the team won just three games after their bye week and finished8–8. In 2017, Zimmer led the team to a13–3 record and a first-round bye on the way to the NFC Championship Game against theEagles, who won 38–7, leaving the Vikings just short of becoming the first team ever to reach a Super Bowl played in their own stadium. Zimmer's Vikings posted back-to-back losing seasons in 2020 and 2021, and on January 10, 2022, he was fired with a record of just three playoff appearances and two division titles in his eight seasons with the team.[35] Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinatorKevin O'Connell was appointed as Zimmer's replacement in February 2022, shortly after helping the Rams to victory inSuper Bowl LVI.[36]
| GC | Games coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Losses |
| T | Ties |
| Win% | Win percentage |
| *† | Elected into thePro Football Hall of Fame as a coach |
Note: Statistics are correct as of the end of the2025 NFL season.
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