What a run Bud, what a run.

Bud Grant passed away today. I thought the world of that guy. What a loss. RIP Bud!

I had the pleasure of visiting with him several years ago near Hayward. We had seen his group fishing the opposite side of a sunken island that we were on. Both boats were doing well catching fish. Later on we were at a resort bar and Bud’s group came in. Bud and another guy stopped at our table and asked how we did fishing on our side of the hump. Turns out we beat them to the spot they planned on fishing. Both boats had new Lowrance X75s, their latest and greatest at the time, we spent a 1/2 hour talking about them and Bud had a few stories about fishing with a Lowrance green box and graphing paper. The word football never came up.

There are many members on this site that never saw him coach. He had a very good run.

Google Bud Grant Armistice Day storm. Just one of the many stories of a legend.

He sure did have a good run. RIP Bud!

Very sad deal. Wasn’t he supposed to have a session at the deer expo? How did he pass?

Sounded like heart failure was suspected.

I always loved how the Vikings created an office for him. That is respect.

I always enjoyed the StarTribune articles about his hunting and fishing adventures. He was a Minnesotan through and through.

Many years ago when my son was about 6 (He turned 42 the other day!), he and I and a friend were at the Minnesota Deer Classic walking through a big crowd as was common back then. Up ahead my friend spotted Bud Grant, gave my son a pen and something to write on and told him ” See that tall guy? Go ask him for his autograph.” My son went up to Bud and said ” Have you seen Babe Winkleman, do you know where he is?” Bud gave him a confused look and we grabbed my son by the arm and snuck away. I don’t even remember if we found Babe that day but for me it has been a great and lasting memory of my encounter with Mr. Bud Grant.

That Armistice Day story is unreal! Those boys were very lucky. It’s ridiculous to think that he played in the NBA and NFL let alone coach in the NFL from the football hotbed of superior.

Buds life story sounds like a version of Forrest Gump. Polio as a kid, survives the Armistice Day blizzard, 3 sport athlete in college, wins a pro basketball championship, plays pro football, coaches pro football in Canada and wins 4 Gray Cups, then coaches in the NFL going to Super Bowls and tops it off by living to 95. That’s one bad @$$ life.

I found myself getting choked up several times on Saturday. I’ll miss him as much for the football as I will the conservation and MN outdoors legend that he was. One of my favorite humans of all time.

Peter King had some interesting Bud Grant tidbits in today’s column. RIP Bud, I’ll always remember him as a tough SOB and a connection to a different time in sports and the world.

“Bud Grant, 1927-2023. Grant and Marv Levy are the only coaches to take teams to the Grey Cup (Canadian Football League title game) and Super Bowl. Grant died Saturday at 95. What a life. The 10 things you need to know about him:

1. Born in Wisconsin and diagnosed with polio at a young age, his doctor told him sports would help his mobility. He played football, basketball and baseball as a kid, and at the University of Minnesota, lettered in each.

2. Baseball might have been his best sport, but upon graduating from Minnesota, he was a first-round pick of the NFL champ Eagles in 1950, and a fourth-round pick of the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers. He won a championship ring with the Lakers in 1950, teaming with the best player of the day, George Mikan. But he was a basketball sub, and could be an NFL starter, so he moved to Philadelphia—and football.

3. With the Eagles in 1952, he caught 56 passes for 997 yards, second in the NFL. But Winnipeg of the CFL offered him more money–$11,000, to $8,000 with Philadelphia—so he jumped leagues in 1953. “That’s not tough arithmetic,” he said.

4. A two-way player in Winnipeg, Grant intercepted five passes in a game for the Blue Bombers in 1953.

5. At the end of the 1956 season in Canada, Grant was named to play in the CFL all-star game in Vancouver. The day after the game, Grant and five teammates were due to fly back to Vancouver late in the afternoon. But he asked the airline to move the group to the early-morning flight, not wanting to hang around Vancouver all day. Four of the teammates made the early flight home. One, Cal Jones, chose to sleep in and fly later. The afternoon flight crashed into a mountain after takeoff, killing all 62 people on board, including Jones. Grant always maintained it was a matter of chance that he didn’t die at 29 on that airplane.

6. He took the Winnipeg head-coaching job in 1957 and won four league titles, in 1958, ’59, ’61 and ’62. The Vikings hired him as coach in 1967.

7. He hated Vince Lombardi. Thought he was a bully. On Oct. 15, 1967, the 0-4 Vikings traveled to Milwaukee to play the 3-0-1 Packers. Green Bay was the defending world champion after winning the first Super Bowl nine months earlier. Minnesota shocked Green Bay 10-7 for the first win of Grant’s career. Grant went to shake hands with Lombardi post-game. “I put my hand out,” Grant said years later. “He wouldn’t shake hands with me. And that was the last time I ever talked to him.”

8. Grant coached the Vikings for 18 years, winning 11 division titles and four NFC championships. The Vikings lost the Super Bowl each of those four times, but Grant said later in life, “If all you live for is winning, you’re going to have a sad life.”

9. He was a disciple of the outdoor life, often dressing in short-sleeve shirts on frigid coaching days. He loved hunting and fishing and fought for hunters’ and fishers’ rights. After his coaching career, he lived for those outdoor passions. And he had a Bud Grant Yard Sale every year.

10. I wrote this about Grant’s yard sale a few years ago:

Mark Hamilton, a retired owner of five wildlife galleries in North Dakota, will get up this morning and drive nine hours—506 miles—from Minot, N.D., to 8134 Oakmere Road in Minneapolis, so he can go to a yard sale.

Bud Grant’s yard sale.

“Nowhere else in America can this happen,” Hamilton said Tuesday, preparing for his long journey. “Bud’s a Minnesota boy, and he’s revered. He’s not just a Minnesota treasure. He’s a national treasure.”

At 5 p.m., Grant will blow a whistle—his old coach’s whistle, in fact—and somewhere between 500 and 1,000 early arrivers will flood his yard. No one can come onto the property until 5 p.m. exactly. “They’ll be respectful,” Grant said. “We’re Minnesotans now, not New Yorkers.” The crowds will come from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Grant was excited. “You want fishing lures? We got fishing lures!”

Said Bob Hagan, the Vikings’ long-time PR czar: “He’s the most famous person in the state, a guy you’ve loved for years, and here he is, inviting you into his yard once a year. Stay as long as you want. Who does that?”