While there was no official national champion in boys volleyball yet, the Vikings defeated all of the teams in the CIF-Southern Section Division One, generally regarded as the best group in the nation by far, and therefore laid claim to the unofficial mantle of being the best in the nation.

It is therefore assumed that the Vikings founded the village, although this remains unproven.

In 844, Abd ar-Rahman repulsed an assault by Vikings who had disembarked in Cadiz, conquered Seville ( with the exception of its citadel ) and attacked Córdoba itself.

By the ninth century a sixth language, Old Norse, had arrived with the Vikings.

The Vikings had similar effects on the various kingdoms of the Scots, Picts and ( to a lesser extent ) Welsh.

Led by Rollo, some Vikings had settled in Normandy and were granted the land, first as counts and then as dukes, by King Charles the Simple, in order to protect the land from other raiders.

There were also five teams which the Texans had never beaten: the Baltimore Ravens ( 0-5 in regular season, 0-1 in playoffs ), Minnesota Vikings ( 0-2 ), New York Jets ( 0-5 ), Philadelphia Eagles ( 0-3 ) and San Diego Chargers ( 0-4 ).

A similar game called Knattleikr had been played for a thousand years or more by the Vikings as documented in the Icelandic Sagas.

Although the white jerseys of the Minnesota Vikings at the time also had a similar striping pattern and continued as such ( as well as the throwbacks the New England Patriots wore in the Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions in 2002, though the Patriots later wore the same throwbacks in 2009 with truncated stripes and in 2010 became their official alternate uniform ), the Colts and most college teams with this striping pattern did not make this adjustment.

Viking navigational techniques are not well understood, but historians postulate that the Vikings probably had some sort of primitive astrolabe and used the stars to plot their course.

Since the team's first season in 1961, the Vikings have had one of the highest winning percentages in the NFL.

The search for the first head coach had the team court then-Northwestern University head coach Ara Parseghian, who according to Minneapolis Star writer Jim Klobuchar — the Vikings ' first beat reporter for that newspaper — visited team management in the Twin Cities under the condition that his visit was to be kept secret from his current employer.

The losing continued throughout much of the 60s as the Vikings had a combined record of 32 wins, 59 losses, and 7 ties in their first 7 seasons with only one winning season ( 8 – 5 – 1 in 1964 ).

Three days later on March 10, the Vikings hired new head coach Bud Grant to replace Van Brocklin, who had resigned on February 11, 1967.

In, the Vikings went 12 – 2, the best record in the NFL, and had 12 straight regular-season victories, after a season-opening loss to the New York Giants, which was the longest single-season winning streak in 35 years.

Following the strike-shortened 1987 season, the 8 – 7 Vikings, who had finished 8 – 4 in regular games but 0 – 3 using strike-replacement players, pulled two upsets in the playoffs by beating the two teams with the best regular season records.

In his 10 seasons as the coach of the Vikings, Green won four NFC Central division titles, had eight playoff appearances, two NFC Championship game appearances and an all-time record of 97 – 62.

In the playoffs, the Vikings rolled past the Arizona Cardinals 41 – 21, and came into the Metrodome heavily favored for their NFC title showdown with the Atlanta Falcons, who had gone 14 – 2 in the regular season.

During the season, the Vikings had many distractions, including trading for Randy Moss and then waiving him only a month later, Brett Favre's NFL investigation for allegedly sending inappropriate text messages to Jets ' employee Jenn Sterger while he was with the team in 2008, the Metrodome's collapse and resulting venue changes, and finally head coach Brad Childress ' firing on November 22 following a 31 – 3 loss at the hands of the rival Green Bay Packers.

From 1969 through 1973, the Vikings had an alternate purple jersey without stripes for warm-weather games.

Like the Vikings, the Chiefs also had an outstanding defensive line, which was led by defensive tackles Buck Buchanan and Curley Culp, and defensive ends Jerry Mays and Aaron Brown.

The defeat was total for the Vikings, as even their " Indestructible " quarterback Joe Kapp had to be helped off the field in the fourth quarter after being sacked by Chiefs defensive lineman Aaron Brown.

The Vikings had four other significant running backs: Dave Osborn, Bill Brown, Oscar Reed, and Ed Marinaro combined for 1, 469 rushing / receiving yards and 11 touchdowns.

( The Kansas City Chiefs had used similar tactics against the same Vikings defensive line in Super Bowl IV ).

The Vikings then had their best opportunity to score in the first half on their ensuing drive.

The Steelers ' " Steel Curtain " had led the AFC in fewest points allowed ( 189 ) and the Vikings ' " Purple People Eaters " had only given up 195.

Nonetheless, the Vikings made the playoffs for the fifth straight year.

In June 2006, the band released their fifth full-length album, The Journeys and Experiences of Death, a concept album focusing mainly on the Vikings ' beliefs concerning death.

A fifth round draft selection of the American Football League's Dallas Texans in 1961, Mays turned down the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, in order to play near his home in Dallas.

Birk returned to form in 2006, again anchoring the Vikings offensive line from the center spot, and earning his fifth career Pro Bowl selection.

* The highest exposures of cosmic-ray emulsions ( Vikings 9, 10, and 11 ).

He amassed a career-high three receiving games on the season, including the opener against the Minnesota Vikings on September 8 when he produced-tied for the third highest single-game total in Bears history.

Of the top 10 NFL teams with the highest winning percentage throughout its franchise history, three of them are in the NFC North ( the Bears, the Packers and the Vikings ).

In his first season, the Vikings led by the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Tommy Kramer, went 9 – 7, their first winning record in four years.

The Vikings entered the decade by winning the divisional championship and an appearance in the NFC Championship game, but struggled the following season by posting a 5 – 11 record in 2001.

However, the Arizona Cardinals completed a game winning touchdown on 4th and 28 with 0: 00 left knocking the Vikings out of the playoffs.

Despite a strong push in the middle of the 2007 season, winning five straight games, the Vikings lost their final two games to finish the season at 8 – 8, missing the playoffs.

In 1987, they finished 12-3 ( their first-ever winning season ) and made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings 44-10.

Tarkenton would go on to lead the Vikings to three Super Bowls and earn a place in the Hall of Fame, while the Giants suffered through one of the worst stretches in their history, winning only 23 games from 1973 – 79.

Despite the AFL's New York Jets winning the previous season's Super Bowl, many sports writers and fans thought it was a fluke and continued to believe that the NFL was still superior to the AFL, and thus fully expected the Vikings to defeat the Chiefs ; the Vikings entered the Super Bowl as 12. 5 to 13-point favorites.

The Vikings also finished the regular season with a 12-2 record, winning their first nine games before a loss on Monday Night Football to the Atlanta Falcons.

Lou Grant was teaching Ted Baxter how to bet on football games, and used Ted's money, as well as some of his own to bet on the hometown Vikings winning the Super Bowl.

The Vikings barely made the playoffs with an 8-7 record during the strike-shortened regular season, but advanced to the NFC championship by winning on the road against the teams with the best records in the NFL, defeating the 12-3 New Orleans Saints, 44-10, and the 13-2 San Francisco 49ers, 36-24.

After losing two straight games in November ( one to the rival Dallas Cowboys ), they finished off the regular season winning their remaining five games, including dominating wins over playoff teams Denver Broncos, 41 – 6, and Minnesota Vikings, 38 – 10.

But from 1997 onward, they had just one non-losing season ( an 8-8 finish in 1999 ) until they finally suffered through a franchise worst 1-15 record in 2001, winning only the first game of the regular season against the Minnesota Vikings.

Also, Anderson missed a field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship Game for the Minnesota Vikings before Andersen kicked his winning kick, both from the same distance as well.

Shula's 1973 team repeated as NFL champions, winning the 1974 Super Bowl over the Minnesota Vikings.

Despite not winning a Super Bowl in any of their 4 trips ( Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX and XI ), the Vikings ' defense is considered arguably among the greatest defense of all time.

The Niners would get the ball back but on that drive, Marshall made up for his famous blunder by sacking the quarterback, and forcing a fumble which teammate Carl Eller recovered and ran 45 yards to score the winning touchdown as the Vikings would win the game 27-22.

He was responsible for all 16 of the Vikings points in a 16-13 win over the Carolina Panthers, kicking three field goals ( including the game winning field goal in overtime ) and throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass on a fake field goal play in the fourth quarter.

In football, he led the Vikings to an undefeated season as a senior quarterback, while winning the Florida Class 4A state football championship in 1991 and earning the No. 2 national ranking in USA Today.

Upon winning the title, Maxpreps ranked the Vikings at top 25 in the State of California, and top 100 in the country.

In 2004, after a 4-8 start, Brooks led the Saints on a four game winning streak to finish the season, reaching the brink of the playoffs, but tiebreakers involving the St. Louis Rams and the Minnesota Vikings did the Saints in.