Burnsie, Millard & Red

Jerry Burns on the Blakeslee Stadium practice fields

Syndicated writer Dave Barry penned a column entitled "16 Things It Took Me Over 50 Years to Learn." It's a funny read with some level of truthiness.

Obviously, a lot can happen in 50 years.

And not to sound like Billy Joel singing "We Didn't Start the Fire," much has taken place in the last five decades.  Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. There was Woodstock and the tragic shootings at Kent State. There was Vietnam and the Berlin Wall. Star Wars premiered and the Watergate break-in occurred. Sid Vicious ring a bell? A bunch of college guys beat the vaunted Soviets in Lake Placid. The Hubble Telescope went into orbit. Princess Di passed away in a car crash. Johnny Carson retired. Twins won the World Series. 9/11. Saddam. bin Laden. Bush. Clinton. Bush. Obama.

On a local level, the Minnesota Vikings first came to Mankato for their summer training camp in 1966, making this year the 50th consecutive season the Purple & Gold have made the Key City their preseason preparation destination.

While it's tough to boil things down to a few thoughts about the Vikings during this period in our little berg, let's take a look at the last 30 seasons.

1986 marked Jerry Burns’ first year. Les Steckel was named head coach in 1984 and the former Marine led the Vikings through one disastrous season in which his squad posted a 3-13 mark. Iconic Bud Grant returned in 1985, leading up to Burnsie being named head coach the following year.

Coach Burns, who guided the team for six years, could come off as curmudgeonly, but had a great sense of humor. There's a story about one camp where the weather was hot and muggy (like most years) and the players and coaches were struggling. To change things up, Burns, along with defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, defensive lineman Keith Millard and equipment manager Dennis Ryan conspired to prank the team. Following a staged argument between Millard and Kiffin, Ryan later threw a dummy dressed like Kiffin off the roof of Gage Hall, giving the players on the practice field a scare.

The summer of 1991 was an interesting one. Especially the night Millard, after leaving the Albatross in a hurried attempt to get back to Gage prior to curfew, crashed his corvette into a planter at Hardee’s.

In 1998, bombastic Red McCombs bought the team and came to town bellowing “Purple Pride.”  This was also the year Randy Moss was drafted and made his inaugural training camp appearance.  The crowds got bigger as in addition to Moss, Randall Cunningham, Cris Carter, Randall McDaniel, John Randle and Robert Smith were also on the roster.  Loaded with that talent, the Vikings went 15-1 in the regular season and advanced to the NFC championship game before losing to Atlanta in overtime.

In 1999, first round draft pick Dimitrius Underwood came to camp wearing camo. He left camp after one day and  never played for the Vikings. Later diagnosed as bipolar, eventually he played a bit in the league with Dallas and Miami.

In 2001 Korey Stringer passed away. I wrote about it HERE.

Leading up to the summer of 2004, there was talk that the team was strongly considering having training camp at a different location. A re-commitment from the town and University, in which promotions and marketing of the team's stay in town would be ramped up, ensured the continued trip down 169. Vikings Village became a reality as camp operations became a joint effort in an attempt to become more organized and to heighten the fan experience.

In the spring of 2013, campus landmark Gage Towers, the venerable dormitory complex which housed the Vikings during their stay, was imploded (the Vikings are now housed in Julia Sears Residence Community on the west side of campus).

Along the way, a few Minnesota State players received invitations to try-out with the local NFL squad, and in 2013 wide receiver Adam Thielen broke camp as a practice squad player. In 2014, the Detroit Lakes, Minn., native made team's 53-man roster and appeared in all 16 regular-season games.

Here's to another 50 years!!!!  Skol Vikings.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Vikings at Minnesota State - Taking a Stab

It's been on the back of our minds for a while. So we're taking a stab.

As you are most-likely aware, the Minnesota Vikings are back in Mankato.  For the 49th consecutive year summer.

You can get all kinds of information regarding their time here in the Key City from a variety of sources, be it via social media postings, online blogs or the multitude of traditional news and sports entities that provide daily coverage in the traditional fashion such as newspapers, television or radio.

The Vikings public relations folks have told us that they'll credential more that 400 members of the media who pass through Mankato during their 20-day stay.

So, this summer, led by Lisa James (one of our undergraduate interns), we're launching our first Minnesota Vikings Training Camp blog. 

Hope you get a chance to stop by when you get a chance.  A work in progress, our new blog is located HERE.

It's great to be a Maverick.

SKOL! Training Camp • Training Camp • Training Camp

The Minnesota Vikings have been coming to Mankato for
summer training camp since 1966.

I'm assuming that for the most part this is the "quiet before the storm" time on most college campuses.

With the Minnesota Vikings arriving this week for the 47th consecutive summer, we really can't say that's the case here at Minnesota State.

Not only does the arrival of the Purple & Gold bring a litany of fans, but also a bevy of Twin Cities and national media.  Several thousand people per day visit Minnesota State and Mankato to attend the daily work outs, which this year are scheduled to run July 26 through August 15.

Some interesting developments regarding the Vikings and this year's camp include the inking of a new three-year deal keeping them coming down 169 the next three years. Given the fact that the Mankato CVB estimates that the annual economic impact of the annual camp runs about $5-million per, obviously, it's kind of a big deal. The last year of the new agreement in 2015 coincides with the 50th year of the relationship and some details about the new contract appear HERE.

Another story line to follow will be how former Minnesota State wide receivers LaMark Brown and Adam Thielen fare as camp attendees.

Brown, who spent one season with the Mavericks after transferring from Kansas State, signed as undrafted free agent with the Atlanta Falcons last year. After getting released on August 31, he was signed by the Buffalo Bills practice squad but was released shortly thereafter. On December 10, 2012, Brown was signed by the Vikings as a practice squad member. The Free Press interviewed Brown at the start of camp and that story is HERE.

Thielen enters his first NFL training camp after a solid college career that saw him finish near the top of several school career receiving categories including finishing second all-time at MSU in receiving yards (2,674), second in receptions (192) and third in touchdown catches (19). Thielen signed with the Vikings after posting a strong showing at the Vikings' Rookie Minicamp held in Eden Prairie, Minn., in May. He's been impressive in a short period of time and a lot has been written about him heading into camp including stories HERE, HERE and HERE.

In the event you do the twitter thing, Brown's twitter handle is @L_Brown87 and you can follow Thielen at @athielen19. Mankato Free Press correspondent Chad Courrier provides daily fodder at @chadcourrier and the Freep's daily blog is located at http://freepresstrainingcamp.blogspot.com/

And in the event you're interested in attending training camp in Mankato, you might want to have a look at the Vikings training camp page prior to coming down and that is located HERE.

Lastly, another former Maverick, lineman Junior Aumavae, is in camp with the New York Jets and he's on twitter at @aumavae_J.

It's always great to see our former players doing well and we wish LaMark, Adam and Junior well the next several weeks.

It's great to be a Maverick!

Watching the Dust Settle

This photo of MSU's Gage Towers is from the 1960s.

It was June 29th, 2013, just over two weeks ago, that Minnesota State's venerable Gage Towers came a tumbling down.

Gage, which served as the on-campus home for more than 50,000 students since opening for business in 1965, stood as one of the most recognizable landmarks in the greater Mankato and Southern Minnesota area.

For those of you who had made the southern trip down Hwy 169 at night, the lights atop Gage served notice that you were getting close to town.

It's likely that if you went to MSU you either lived there at some point or were best buddies with someone who did.  You might have met your wife or husband there.  Your kids might have lived here. You probably remember having pizza delivered there and getting letters from your mailbox there. Former students have mentioned water gun fights, elevator issues, the radio station in B tower, bunk beds, funny hall directors and tossing various items out of windows.

If you needed to give someone on-campus directions, Gage was often used as a reference point.

The implosion didn't take to long and there's plenty of video available online in the event you'd like to have a look including HERE, HERE and HERE.

The Minnesota Vikings, who report for their 2013 summer training camp July 25th, have also used Gage as their residence since selecting Mankato for their preseason workouts back in 1965. And not only will the Vikings' organization have to sleep and eat in unfamiliar digs beginning this summer, but the fans who attend training camp will undoubtedly notice something amiss.

They say it's going to take about 30 days to clean up the rubble, essentially erasing the remaining vestiges of the 135-foot towers that cost $2.57 million to build.

It's going to a lot longer than that to erase the memories.

 

Requiescat in pace Gage Towers

It's great to be a Maverick!

Not Forgotten - Korey Stringer

Korey Stringer 1974-2001

When it comes to weather, those of us who live in Minnesota are extremely familiar with a couple of "extended stats" numbers other than temperature and wind speed to determine how it feels outside. In the winter it's wind chill which measures the effect of wind on air temperature. Simply put, the windier it is, the colder it feels. In the summer heat index combines heat and humidity. The more the humidity we have, the warmer it feels.

The weather in Mankato today is what you would expect for this time of year.  It's the morning of August 1st and the temperature is heading toward 90 degrees and while the humidity stands at 87%, it's continuing to rise.  The air feels heavy and if you're outside for an extended period of time, without any exertion, you will sweat through your shirt.

It was like this ten years ago and the Vikings were in camp on campus.  Hot and humid with the heat index well into triple digits.

That night, my wife Lori was watching the six o'clock news and said "Hey, Perry (Dyke) just said that they took Korey Stringer to the hospital today."

Stringer was a 27-year old offensive tackle coming off of an All-Pro season. Checking in at 6-4 and 335 pounds, the former Ohio State Buckeye had suffered heat stroke after a full-pads, full-contact practice on a day when the heat index in Mankato was nearly 110 degrees.

I responded to Lori with a casual "No need to worry. Those big guys always struggle with the heat this time of year and one or two of them always end up in the hospital during camp.  They'll pump him full of fluids, cool him down and he'll be back on the field in a day or so." 

It seems so flippant now.

At about 4:00 a.m. the phone rang in our house.  I used to occasionally get calls at that time in the morning from my college buddies.  No so much anymore and in the rare times those calls come now, it's usually not good.  This was one of those times. It was Tom West from the Vikings media relations department. I can't remember his exact words, but he was calling to say that Korey Stringer had passed away and that the Vikings would need some assistance with the media attention the organization was expecting with the developing story.

And, obviously, it was a big story.  Stringer was one of the top young offensive linemen in the National Football League on a team that included high-profile players such as Duante Culpepper, Randy Moss and Cris Carter.  Later that day, the national media descended on Mankato and MSU and at a press conference held in the Centennial Ballroom (the largest room we had available to accommodate the large contingent of journalists), Denny Green, Carter and Moss all gave testimonials to Stringer. It was sad and gut-wrenching and I'll never forget Moss struggling through a tear-filled ten minutes at the podium in trying to convey his sentiments for his fallen teammate.

Things have changed since that day. 

Green and Culpepper are both out of the NFL, reunited with the United Football League's Sacramento Mountain Lions last fall.  Carter is an analyst for ESPN and Moss is a free agent, looking for a team to play for after spending the 2010 season with three different teams, including a short-lived four-game stint with Minnesota. 

Stringer's death brought about major changes to how NFL teams run training camp and, in particular, heat stroke prevention.

"The awareness has became greater, certainly (relative to heat stroke prevention and recognition)." said Jeff Chambers, MSU's director of sports medicine. "It changed our approach. We've became more acutely aware of signs of heat stroke. We were doing a lot before, but now there's much more stress on rehydration, monitoring weight loss, practice duration and timing, etc."
  

It's ten years today and, hopefully Korey Stringer's passing wasn't in vain with lessons learned and no Viking falling on the Blakeslee Stadium practice fields. 

Post post Note:  About an hour after I posted this, Randy Moss announced that he was retiring.  I also thought I might add these links -  Vikings honor 10th anniversary of Stringer's death & Vikings Remember Stringer.