Vikings and fans celebrate Bud Grant, who loved family, football, the outdoors… and money

The subject of Bud Grant’s memorial service would have approved the duration of the ceremony. The dress code was casual, as were the conversations.

Scott Studwell wore one of his best cargo shorts. Mike Grant, one of Bud’s sons, looked at the sunlight through the clear plastic roof panels and said, “My dad would have wondered why you were here on this beautiful spring day. He would have said, ‘Why not. are you at the cabin?’ “

For about 90 minutes Sunday at US Bank Stadium, Bud Grant’s family, friends, former players and colleagues remembered the Hall of Fame Vikings coach, portraying a man who was hyper-competitive but hardly unanimous.

They said he loved his family, Vikings, the outdoors and old fashioned cash, sometimes even in that order.

Emcee Mark Rosen, who portrayed Grant as a local television star, introduced video clips from Fran Tarkenton, Jim Marshall and Ahmad Rashad. Senator Amy Klobuchar, whose father, Jim, profiled Grant and the Vikings in the Minneapolis Tribune and Star Tribune, presented Mike Grant with a framed congressional statement honoring his father.

The theme of the event was “Bud Grant He Did It His Way”. Former players Carl Eller, Chuck Foreman, Stu Voigt and Studwell sat on couches and comfortable chairs to tell stories about Grant, portraying a coach who could command a room with a stare and a team with a nod.

PaulWiggin, the longtime Vikings defensive line coach, told the story of Pete Carroll, then a young defensive backs coach, who showed up to practice early one day wanting to please. Grant walked in just in time. Carroll eagerly asked Grant what the plan was. Grant said, according to Wiggin, “You’re the defensive backs coach. Go coach the defensive backs.”

Wiggin said that one time during training camp, Grant let Carroll go to the Mankato library to prepare a report on Kyber Pass. “I never knew why he did it,” Wiggin said. “It didn’t make sense to me. It was Bud’s way of doing things.”

Carroll will continue as the coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He has won a national college championship and a Super Bowl.

Wiggin compared Grant to “some ancient philosopher”. Rosen remembered standing on the sidelines at practice and Grant walking up to it, pointing to the monarch butterfly and explaining that it was migrating to Mexico.

Grant’s best friend was Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman, who died in 2020. Sid’s son Chad joined a media roundtable with WCCO anchor Mike Max, Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse and KFAN host Dan Barreiro and recalled Grant telling Sid that he would give Grant’s Hall of Fame induction speech.

Sid drove to Chad’s house with tears in his eyes, one of the few times Chad saw him cry. Chad admitted that he also helped edit Sid’s speech to include more of Bud and less of Sid.

Chad said his father and Grant had little in common other than Vikings and the roots of depression. Both, late in life, took to hiding cash in their houses.

Of all the kind and gentle words spoken about Grant on Sunday, the most touching was from his son Mike.

Mike is the legendary football coach at Eden Prairie High School. On Sunday, he displayed a wry sense of humor that few were privileged to see from his father.

In his later years, Bud liked to hold garage sales and charge autographs for the items he sold. “He enjoyed driving down 169 to Mankato because he was always looking for deals, things on the side of the road,” Mike said. “Which would likely show up later in his garage sale.

“I want to say this time, if you bought an old weed trimmer or trolling motor that never worked, know that you put a smile on my dad’s face when you walked down the driveway and he got rid of some useless junk. .”

Mike said that his father’s character was shaped by depression, that Bud’s pastime as a child was shooting rats in a junkyard, that he honed his pitching hand by throwing rocks at telephone poles.

On Sunday, fans and friends said goodbye to Grant at the billion-dollar stadium that houses the team he made popular. At the end of the ceremony, as Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” played over the sound system, Rosen told fans they would get ice cream, Bud’s favorite snack, when they left.

Sunshine, ice cream and old friends. Grant could postpone the trip to the cabin until such a meeting.

But probably not.