Minnesota Vikings

Former Vikings greats recall training camp in Mankato

Published Aug. 6, 2015 5:15 p.m. ET

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It's a time-honored tradition in the NFL: toiling in high humidity, in late summer, at training camp. And, for 50 years now, the Minnesota Vikings have done so in Mankato.

Fifty consecutive summers spent on the campus of Minnesota State University. As you might imagine, that has created more than a few memories for the Vikings' contingent. Most are recalled these days with reverence, or a laugh . . . or a stifled groan.

"For four weeks, maybe six weeks, you tackled every day. That's what you did," Ricky Young, a Vikings tailback from 1978-83, told Vikings.com recently.

Yes, since the mid-1960s, the Vikings have used Mankato to forge toughness. And that began with stays at Gage Hall, a residence hall that was imploded a couple years ago.

"Gage Hall was August to me. And sweaty sheets, you know," said iconic former Vikings head coach Bud Grant, now 88. "You'd go to bed at 12 o'clock and it'd be 3 o'clock before it would cool off enough to where you could go to sleep.

"But it served its purpose," added Grant, who won 158 games in the NFL, all with the Vikings. "And Mankato always treated us well."

According to Vikings officials, Minnesota has the second-longest training camp streak in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers are also celebrating their 50th training camp in the same location this summer, at Saint Vincent College, in Latrobe, Pa. The rival Packers have called St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., home for 58 straight summers, although that is just where the team stays and dines. Green Bay's practices take place within the shadows of Lambeau Field.

Of course, many of the Vikings' fond training-camp recollections came outside of Gage Hall, or at nearby Blakeslee Stadium.

"I remember there was a pizza place right down from the locker room," noted Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton. "They had frozen mugs, and they had frozen pitchers of beer. And, after practice in Mankato, we would go in there and finish our practice (on) a hot August or July afternoon and we would drink those pitchers of beer and come to the dining table and we weren't hungry. We didn't wanna eat.

"Then, we'd go after that to the dormitory and we'd play cards, and we'd play cards late into the evening. And that, again, built the camaraderie and the culture that was special to us."

Yes, going through the rigors of an NFL training camp can form rare bonds. Heck, Tarkenton -- who retired in 1978 -- sounds as if he'd have an unspoken kinship with Chris Doleman, a Vikings great from the '80s and '90s, based on their experiences in Mankato.

"When we were down there, at the end of the day the beers in Mankato tasted so good; it could get really hot down there -- it was a great time," said Doleman, who recorded 150.5 NFL sacks.

It almost sounds like these former Vikings miss their time sequestered in the old, unairconditioned dormitory in Mankato.

"It was a great time," Doleman said.

"For 50 years, to (host) the Vikings there, they've done an outstanding job."

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