Minnesota Vikings Trivia
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107 free Minnesota Vikings trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
51 free Minnesota Vikings trivia questions with answers. The Minnesota Vikings have the best winning percentage of any NFL team that has never won a Super Bowl, which tells you everything about being a fan: brilliant defenses, four trips to the big game, a 15-1 season that ended on a missed kick, and a walk-off playoff touchdown that still does not feel real. This quiz covers the whole story from the 1961 expansion season at the Met to U.S. Bank Stadium. The early questions suit anyone who has ever done the Skol chant: who the Purple People Eaters were, who caught the Minneapolis Miracle, which running back ran for 2,097 yards. The later ones are for people who know Bud Grant's Grey Cups, Ole Haugsrud's ten percent, and how many sacks John Randle got as an undrafted rookie. Every answer has been checked against the published record and carries a linked source, so you can settle a tailgate argument on the spot.
30 of 107 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which team did the expansion Vikings upset in their first regular-season game in 1961?
Bears
Chicago Bears. Rookie Fran Tarkenton came off the bench to throw four touchdown passes and run for a fifth score in the 37-13 win.
Q 02Which team beat the Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV?
Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs. As the AFL's final champions, they evened the Super Bowl series between the two leagues at two wins each.
Q 03Which team beat the Vikings 32-14 in Super Bowl XI in January 1977?
Oakland Raiders
It was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on January 9, 1977, and gave the Raiders their first title.
Q 04Which Vikings defensive lineman ran a recovered fumble 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone in 1964?
Jim Marshall
Jim Marshall. His wrong-way run against San Francisco handed the 49ers a safety, but the Vikings still won the game 27-22.
Q 05Which Hall of Fame quarterback became the Vikings' first head coach in 1961?
Norm Van Brocklin
Norm Van Brocklin. He had just quarterbacked Philadelphia past Vince Lombardi's Packers for the 1960 championship, and went straight from the huddle to coaching an expansion team.
Q 06Before the Vikings, Bud Grant spent ten seasons as head coach of which Canadian team?
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Grant went north as a player in 1953 after two NFL seasons, and by 1957 he was the club's head coach.
Q 07Before his football career, Vikings coach Bud Grant won the 1950 NBA title playing for which team?
Lakers
Minneapolis Lakers. An NFL team had drafted Grant in the first round in 1950, but he put football on hold to play two seasons of pro basketball first.
Q 08Fran Tarkenton played college football for which school?
Georgia
Georgia. Tarkenton never had to leave town: he had starred at Athens High School, then led the hometown Bulldogs to the 1959 SEC title.
Q 09Which Vikings Hall of Famer went on to serve as a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court?
Alan Page
Alan Page. He went to law school during his playing days, earning his degree in 1978, and was later elected to the state's highest court.
Q 10Whose career passing records did Fran Tarkenton break?
Johnny Unitas
Johnny Unitas. Tarkenton got there his own way, twisting away from pass rushers for 18 seasons and running for more yards than any quarterback before him.
Q 11The 1975 Vikings were knocked out of the playoffs by which famous play?
The Hail Mary
The Hail Mary. Roger Staubach's 50-yard desperation pass to Drew Pearson won it 17-14, and his post-game remark about saying a Hail Mary popularised the name.
Q 12Which Vikings receiver caught Tommy Kramer's 'Miracle at the Met' heave against Cleveland in 1980?
Ahmad Rashad
Ahmad Rashad caught Tommy Kramer's desperation pass as time expired to beat Cleveland 28-23, a win that put the Vikings in the playoffs.
Q 13Which Vikings safety set the NFL career record with 81 interceptions?
Paul Krause
Paul Krause. Washington traded him to Minnesota in 1968 for a linebacker and a draft pick, and in 1979, his final season, he passed Emlen Tunnell's record of 79.
Q 21Which cartoonist designed the Vikings' horned helmet and purple-and-gold uniforms?
Karl Hubenthal
Karl Hubenthal, a Los Angeles Examiner sports cartoonist, drew the blond Norseman logo and the white helmet horn for the expansion team in 1961.
Q 22On what date was the team officially named the Minnesota Vikings?
September 27, 1960
The Minnesota Vikings name was adopted on September 27, 1960, eight months after the NFL awarded the franchise; general manager Bert Rose proposed it to honour the state's Scandinavian heritage.
Q 23The 1989 Herschel Walker trade sent the running back to Minnesota from which team, in exchange for players and draft picks?
Dallas Cowboys
Q 14Which USC lineman did the Vikings take first overall in the 1968 draft?
Ron Yary
Ron Yary. Minnesota owned the top pick only because it had traded quarterback Fran Tarkenton a year earlier, and Yary stayed with the Vikings for 14 seasons.
Q 15Which Vikings running back was the 1973 Offensive Rookie of the Year and started three Super Bowls?
Chuck Foreman
Chuck Foreman. His trademark spin move was borrowed from basketball's Earl 'The Pearl' Monroe, whom he grew up watching in Maryland.
Q 16In which Minneapolis suburb did Metropolitan Stadium, the Vikings' home from 1961 to 1981, stand?
Bloomington
Bloomington. The stadium was built there in the 1950s to lure a major-league baseball team to Minnesota, and in 1961 it landed both the Twins and the Vikings.
Q 17What opened in 1992 on the site of Metropolitan Stadium, the Vikings' first home?
The Mall of America
The Mall of America. A plaque in its indoor amusement park marks the spot where the old ballpark's home plate once sat.
Q 18The Metrodome's fabric roof was held up by what?
Air pressure
Air pressure. A December 2010 snowstorm ripped the fabric roof open and deflated it, forcing the Vikings to move a home game to Detroit.
Q 19Where did the Vikings play their 2014 home games?
TCF Bank Stadium
TCF Bank Stadium. With their new stadium still being built, the Vikings spent two seasons on the University of Minnesota's outdoor field, which was fitted with a heated playing surface for them.
Q 20In which Minneapolis neighbourhood is U.S. Bank Stadium?
Downtown East
Downtown East. The stadium replaced the Metrodome on the same site, and its roof, inspired by Nordic architecture, is sloped so that snow slides off instead of piling up.
Dallas Cowboys. They turned Minnesota's draft picks into Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson and other players who helped them win multiple Super Bowls in the 1990s.
Q 24What was the Vikings' record in the 1998 regular season?
15-1
15-1. The 1998 Vikings scored a then-record 556 points, yet they never reached the Super Bowl, falling to Atlanta in overtime in the NFC Championship Game.
Q 25Which Vikings kicker, perfect through the 1998 regular season, missed a late field goal in the NFC Championship Game?
Gary Anderson
Gary Anderson had made all 35 field goals and all 59 extra points that season before the miss, which let Atlanta tie the game and win 30-27 in overtime.
Q 26Vikings rookie Randy Moss caught 17 touchdowns in 1998, then a record 23 for which team?
Patriots
New England Patriots. In 2007, after his previous team had traded him away following two quiet seasons, he broke Jerry Rice's 20-year-old record for touchdown catches.
Q 27Which college did Randy Moss play for?
Marshall
Marshall. Notre Dame withdrew its scholarship offer after an arrest and Florida State dismissed him after a failed drug test, so Moss became a star at a lower-division school instead.
Q 28Which team did Cris Carter play for before joining the Vikings in 1990?
Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles. He showed only flashes in three seasons there before being let go, then became a star in Minnesota, leading the Vikings in catches for ten straight years.
Q 29Which undrafted defensive tackle piled up 137.5 career sacks for the Vikings and Seahawks?
John Randle
John Randle. Scouts thought him too small for a defensive lineman, so no team drafted him, and the Vikings signed him only on condition that he get his weight above 250 pounds.
Q 30Which Vikings coach, hired in 1992, was the second Black head coach in modern NFL history?
Dennis Green
Dennis Green, hired from Stanford in January 1992, followed Art Shell as the modern NFL's second Black head coach; he reached the playoffs eight times in ten seasons before being let go with one game left in 2001.