Pioneer Press: Goodbye Mankato: It was a long, sometimes strange trip
Since 1966, no NFL team has continuously held training camp in the same location, so the breakup between the Vikings and Mankato is cheerless no matter how inevitable.
The departure blows a $5 million hole in the retail economy of Minnesota’s fifth-largest city outside MSP, and erases a legacy that has boosted its regional and national identity for more than five decades.
There were hijinks, brawls and tragedy. All 11 Vikings hall of famers slept in erstwhile Gage Hall and ate in the same cafeteria as students would every school year.
It was where Bud Grant molded four NFC championship teams in the 1970s during brutal two-a-day workouts, and where tackle Korey Stringer died after succumbing to heatstroke in 2001.
http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/04/goodbye-mankato-it-was-a-long-sometimes-strange-trip/
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
Anyone remember when camp was 6,7 weeks long? Now its what? 13 days?!
“Oh, man, there’s so many memories,” said Millard, 55, now a retired stay-at-home-dad in northern California. “When Jerry Burns was head coach, he didn’t really have a lot of rules, so we could do what we wanted as long as we were safe.”
There were paint-ball battles in the dorms with the offensive linemen when rookies were stuck with smaller guns, scant ammunition and pummeled into submission. The bar-hoppers had to make it back for curfew, but the gamblers could play dice in the hallways until sunrise, Millard said.
“When we were there, it was a pretty good time and the older guys treated it like a vacation away from home and the honey-do lists,” Millard said. “All we had was each other, so we beat hell out of each other during day, went to the Albatross at night for a couple beers, get back by 11 and the coaches would follow us out the door.”
Today’s buttoned-down players rarely get into trouble in Mankato. Coach Mike Zimmer said he cannot remember a single player breaking curfew in his four seasons in Minnesota.
“We’re up at 7 a.m. and we don’t get done until 9:30, 9:45 some nights,” said defensive end Brian Robison. “Curfew’s at 11. There’s not a lot time to do anything other than talk to your family and basically go to bed.”
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