Hall of Fame Head Coach Bud Grant is a Minnesota icon.
He isn't the only one, however. In Chapter 4 of "Letters to Bud," we give you an exclusive look at letters written to Grant by six individuals who had strong Minnesota ties and made a significant impact on the state.
From St. Paul native Herb Brooks, who coached the "Miracle on Ice" during the 1980 Olympics, to a former Gophers teammate of Grant's, a longtime broadcaster and a notable political figure, each one shared one thing in common beyond the place they called home: a reverence for the longtime Vikings coach.
Two Minnesota icons.
Born 10 years apart, Bud Grant and Herb Brooks both attended the University of Minnesota but had long-since wrapped up their collegiate days before coming to know one another through mutual connections.
Dan Brooks, Herb’s son, attended St. Thomas Academy along with Pat Tingelhoff, the son of Vikings center Mick Tingelhoff.
“I think Mick shared a lot about Bud Grant with my dad,” Dan said. “My dad knew Bud very well just through various connections, but I would say that Bud Grant was probably my dad’s favorite non-hockey coach.”
Added Dan: “He really, really admired Bud Grant for what he stood for.”
Brooks appreciated and respected fellow coaches who showed a high level of character and were effective leaders of their teams.
According to Dan, his father loved Grant’s quiet demeanor on the sideline.
“It was just his way,” Dan said of Grant. “He commanded respect. He was kind of that strong, silent type. Pardon my language, but Bud Grant took shit from nobody.”
Brooks coached hockey and Grant coached football, but had their players swapped sports for a day, they might have recognized similarities between the two feared leaders.
"When they walked into a locker room, and when they spoke, it was like players just listened and were at attention.
"The players that didn't buy in or were acting up or screwing up, they were gone," Dan added. "They both had that kind of stoic stare that put the fear of God in these players."
Neither coach was easy on his players, but their players respected them and understood that success wasn’t always an easy goal to reach.
“During the crunch time, during the heat of the battle, these players were extremely thankful to have them behind the bench,” Dan said. “They were great leaders.”
Brooks, a standout hockey player, set a record between 1960 and 1970 by playing on a total of eight U.S. National and Olympic teams, including the 1964 and 1968 Olympic squads.
Brooks eventually hung up his skates but didn’t leave the ice. He became a coach for the Gophers and led them to three NCAA Championship titles (1974, 1976 and 1979). From 1981 to 1985, Brooks took a job in the National Hockey League coaching the New York Rangers, during which he wrote the above letter to Grant. Other NHL gigs included the Minnesota North Stars (1987-88), New Jersey Devils (1992-93) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (1999-2000).
The Minnesota legend coached three Olympic teams, including the 1980 team, whose story was retold by Disney’s Miracle in 2004.
In 1990, Brooks was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and in 1999 to the International Hockey Hall of Fame.
Brooks passed away in a single-car accident in 2003, at the age of 66. Three years later, Brooks was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
When Paul Giel, Jr., saw the letter his father wrote to Bud Grant in 1984, he didn’t need to read it to know its significance.
At the bottom of the typed letter, Paul Sr.’s signature is penned in blue ink – just one word, Paul, with its token looping “P.”
“That in and of itself tells me a ton,” Paul Jr. said. “When my dad passed away, on the program for his [funeral] service, the cover just said ‘Paul.’
“If he would have signed it ‘Paul Giel,’ that would have said, ‘I don’t know you well enough to just sign it ‘Paul,’ ” he continued. “That was a sign that they were pretty close.”
Paul Jr. explained that the relationship between his father and Grant was a special one, marked by a shared pride in their alma mater, love for sports and emphasis on loyalty.
The name of Paul Sr. is recognized across the State of Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota, Paul Sr. was an All-American in baseball, two-time All-American in football and runner-up to the Heisman Trophy in 1953. His jersey number is one of only five in Gophers football history to be retired.
Paul Jr. credits Grant – who was from Superior, Wisconsin, just beyond the Minnesota border – and other local athletes that came before his father for Paul Sr.’s decision to play for the Gophers.
“These were the men of action that made a small-town kid from Winona, Minnesota, want to go to the University,” Paul Jr. said. “The Bud Grants, the Billy Byes, the Bruce Smiths, the Clayton Tonnemakers. You could make a list of just a ton of people who were Minnesotans, who stayed home, went to school at the university, raised their families here.”
Following his career at the U of M, Paul Sr. was drafted by the Chicago Bears. In response, Grant offered Paul Sr. a larger deal to come and sign with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Canadian Football League), whom he was currently coaching. Paul Sr. also received an offer from the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. In the end, Paul Sr. opted to try his hand at baseball instead, and he signed with the New York Giants (who moved to San Francisco in 1958).
Paul Sr. spent six seasons in Major League Baseball with the Giants (1954-55, 1958), Pittsburgh Pirates (1959-60), Kansas City Athletics (1961) and capped it off by playing a few months for the Minnesota Twins before hanging up his cleats.
While Paul Sr. didn’t play football for Grant, he stayed in contact with the fellow Gophers alum and followed his transition from the Blue Bombers to head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1967. At that time, Paul Sr. was working for WCCO as the sports director and color analyst for Vikings games.
“He was around the Vikings all the time,” Paul Jr. said of his father. “He used to always go down to Mankato, and he used to [bring me]. We would go down and see all my heroes, and he mingled amongst the players because he was one of them.
“He had access to everybody because he was well-respected but also because Bud made it happen,” Paul Jr. added. “Because he knew my dad would report it right.”
While Grant and Paul Sr. shared several similarities, the friends also were quite different from one another.
Paul Jr. reflected on personality contrasts he noticed between his father and the Hall of Fame coach.
“Bud’s an analytical, stoic figure, and my dad wasn’t like that,” Paul Jr. said. “My dad’s emotional. I watched him walk out of a stadium once because he couldn’t watch a third-down-and-3. He just can’t do that."
Paul Jr. described his dad as a charismatic and yet humble individual.
“That’s very attractive to a guy like Bud Grant,” he said. “Bud doesn’t like a lot of ‘jicky-jack’ or a lot of bull crap. He likes straight-shooting guys who are honest, who will give you their ‘A’ game, so to speak.”
Added Paul Jr.: “They were very similar in their popularity, in their processes, but wired differently.”
In 1971, the University of Minnesota hired Paul Sr. as its new athletic director.
“He didn’t have any administration skills,” Paul Jr. said with a chuckle. “But he was so well known and so well liked.”
Paul Sr. had stayed in touch with his network of former Gophers, and when he assumed the position at the university, he often included them in school events when possible. When he approached Grant or others to ask for help with a fundraiser or speaking engagement, Paul Sr. was rarely, if ever, turned down.
“One, they had respect for my dad,” Paul Jr. said. “But two … they were super loyal to the university. It was their springboard to move on and to do other things. They always felt kind of a compelling sense of ‘how do I give back?’ And they enjoyed giving back to somebody they liked.”
Among demanding schedules that included Paul Sr.’s role as athletic director and Grant coaching the Vikings, a consistent group of Gophers alumni gathered every summer at the Bay Lake home of former running back Billy Bye.
“It was like a big, huge storytelling machine,” Paul Jr. said. “The stories were all true, but they were embellished; there was always lots of ribbing. I always heard unbelievable trash talk between these guys.
“They always stayed in contact, even though they were in different worlds,” he added of Paul Sr. and Grant. “They always had playing at Memorial Stadium. They always had knowing these other coaches, these other players. The age difference wasn’t that great, but it closed to an almost zero gap because that’s how it is in life.”
According to Paul Jr., his father was both a friend and a fan of Grant’s.
Paul Sr. first watched Grant play at the University of Minnesota, then followed his career through Canada and back to the Midwest where he led the Vikings to four Super Bowl appearances.
“Bud is solely responsible … for creating a culture and an expectation,” Paul Jr. said.
“The culture around the state and what others perceive – especially with how big the NFL is – is all about Bud Grant.”
Seven years after Paul Sr. passed away in 2002, the story in a way came full circle for Paul Jr., who for years had admired the relationship between Paul Sr. and Grant.
To commemorate the opening of TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota in 2009, Paul Jr. stood in for his father as an honorary captain. He was joined on the field by eight other Gophers alums, including Grant.
“Hands down, when they announced Bud Grant, he got the loudest ovation,” Paul Jr. recalled. “Not to say that my dad didn’t get a lot of people cheering for him, but Bud is beloved – not only through the university space but through the entire five-state area that drew toward the Vikings and his approaching of doing it the right way.”
Added Paul Jr.: “The letter my father wrote was his short and sweet way of saying, ‘I tip my cap to you, Bud; you did it right.’ ”
Halsey and Bud.
Two trademarks in Minnesota that needed no context – or even a last name – when talked about.
"Everybody knew [Halsey Hall]. He was one of those rare people, like Bud, who was known by one name,” said radio personality Dave Mona, another fixture of the Minnesota sports world. “Over his years, if you said, 'Halsey,' everybody knew who you meant; you didn’t need 'Halsey Hall.' "
Hall – who is said to have coined the popular phrase, “Holy Cow!” – has a colorful history and résumé that could occupy hours. Born in New York City on May 23, 1898, Hall moved with his father to St. Paul in 1900.
Hall served in the U.S. Navy and worked in a recruiting office in Duluth, Minnesota, during World War I. Following his military service, he secured his first writing position as a sports reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune in 1919. Three years later, he transitioned to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
According to Stew Thornley, author of Holy Cow: The Life and Times of Halsey Hall, Hall worked for a variety of newspapers and “covered an even greater variety of assignments” over the next four decades. In the early years, he covered college athletics as well as the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints baseball teams.
In the 1940s, Hall’s byline was found in both the Minneapolis Star and the Minneapolis Tribune, which later merged.
Hall’s simultaneous role as a broadcaster was set in motion on July 4, 1923, during a boxing match between St. Paul boxer Tommy Gibbons and heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey that took place in Shelby, Montana. According to Thornley, as a crowd gathered outside of the Pioneer Press building for updates, the paper arranged for Hall to provide an account of the fight.
Hall called the fight via megaphone from a second-floor window, and his play-by-play career was born.
Hall’s first regular radio job was with WCCO, for whom he hosted a Monday night sports roundup, “The Call of the North.”
It was in 1934 that Hall began announcing for the Millers and for Minnesota Gophers football. He did play-by-play for the Gophers through 73, which included Bud Grant’s four seasons (1946-49) under Head Coach Bernie Bierman.
“Halsey had the continuity,” Mona said. “He would have seen Bud as an outstanding player for the Gophers and would have even chronicled Bud with the Lakers, seeing him in two capacities before he disappeared a bit from the scene and to Winnipeg.”
In 1961, during the time Grant was coaching the CFL’s Blue Bombers, Hall began his broadcasting run with the newly established Minnesota Twins, his first major league gig. He was 62 years old at the time.
Bring up the name Halsey Hall, and many will remember the incident most talked about surrounding the local favorite. As the story goes, Hall was in the press box alongside Herb Carneal, and the two were calling a game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1968 when ashes from Hall’s signature cigar ignited a growing mound of ticker tape on the floor.
Hall’s sport coat went up in flames. The fire was extinguished, but the story lives in infamy.
At the time, Twins catcher Jerry Zimmerman quipped, “Halsey’s the only man I know who can turn a sports coat into a blazer.”
Ask anyone who knew Hall, and he or she will tell you of his jovial and colorful personality.
Bits of his nature are evident in the letter he sent to Grant in 1975, which was typed beneath the Twins blue-and-red letterhead.
Pardon the stationary, maybe. But, what the hell, you were in this sport, too.
When Mona was read the letter over the phone and asked about Hall’s character, he chuckled.
“ ‘Character’ is exactly the right word for Halsey,” Mona said. “He was a great storyteller. He was probably THE sports emcee of all those years because he knew the history [of Minnesota sports]. Halsey was almost part actor – he was larger than life.
“It’s classic that Halsey wrote that on Twins stationary, because he was one of the cheapest guys you’d ever met,” Mona adds with a laugh. “It was an endearing characteristic of Halsey, though. He was a real tightwad, and the fact that he could find some paper that was available from the Twins office, that was classic Halsey.”
Amid personal quips, however, a few more earnest thoughts rise to the surface of Hall’s letter, which was written one week after the Vikings loss to the Steelers in Super Bowl IX.
Halsey affirmed Grant for the way the coach “handled [himself] at the finish.” In the following paragraph, Hall referenced Grant’s given first name, writing, “never has a man been more scholarly in defeat or victory as old Harry.”
Finally, Hall encouraged Grant with the following line:
Sense of values is a funny quantity, and you and the Vikes have built up such a following that sometimes perspective is lost sight of.
Mona pondered the more serious notes of Hall’s letter and said it wasn’t a surprise to hear the respect for Grant conveyed.
“I think that Halsey truly appreciated the continuity and that Bud came back home,” Mona said. “He was from Superior, Wisconsin, but associated with Minnesota and came back here. And almost immediately under Bud’s leadership, the Vikings situation settled down, and they rose to a leadership position in the league. Halsey would have appreciated the kind of things [that Grant put] value in.
“Halsey truly was one of the legendary handful of people that you would connect with sports journalism for [five-plus] decades,” Mona said. “A letter from Halsey is a great inclusion to this collection.”
Paths between Bill McGrane and Bud Grant crossed more than once.
The two first worked together when the Vikings hired Grant as the team’s second head coach in 1967. Prior to being hired by General Manager Jim Finks as the director of public relations, a role he held from 1966-72, McGrane wrote for the Minneapolis Tribune.
Vikings longtime trainer Fred Zamberletti called McGrane a “longtime friend,” whom he met at the University of Iowa in the early 1950s.
“Bill was a tremendous writer. He was the kind of guy who could just write in ‘Wall Street’ language – simple, sweet, just a great writer,” Zamberletti said. “He was quite a guy. He advanced through the league and was Jim Finks’ confidant. … In some ways, he contributed to the success of the Vikings.”
Hall of Fame defensive tackle Alan Page, who played for the Vikings from 1967-78, also recalled his first impressions of McGrane. Page described him as an easygoing individual who “didn’t have an axe to grind with everything,” and added that he was noticeably thoughtful with his words, both spoken and written.
“I didn’t initially spend that much time with him, but I had the impression that he was a good writer. A thoughtful writer,” Page said. “He was good with people. Not so much a schmoozer, but he just had a natural rapport with people.”
Following his time with the Vikings, McGrane returned to sports journalism. Three years later, he reunited with Finks in Chicago, where he worked for the Bears from 1975-89 and again from 1998-2003. During his first stint with the Bears, McGrane wrote and published a book about Grant titled Bud: The Other Side of the Glacier.
According to the Chicago Tribune, McGrane served as Finks’ assistant for nine years in Chicago and “was one of the few men in the draft room in 1983 when the Bears built the nucleus of the Super Bowl XX championship team.”
Page joined the Bears during the 1978 season and played there through 1981, overlapping again with McGrane. Then years later, McGrane approached Page with the proposition of a book.
“Bill came to Diane and I with the proposal, and it’s not something that we had particularly thought about or wanted to do, and we were somewhat reluctant,” admitted Page. “But our sense of him was that he was somebody we could trust.
“Ultimately, that helped us decide to go forward, which was very important to us,” Page continued. “And it was one of the things [I also noticed about him in] the early days both with the Vikings and the Bears – he was easygoing but trustworthy.”
In 2010, McGrane published the book on Page, All Rise.
McGrane passed away in 2015 at the age of 82.
Over the phone, Page hears the letter that McGrane sent to Grant in 1984, in which he started his greeting, “Whatever happens, don’t change your mind now and come back into the business… .”
The fact that Grant did, in fact, return to coach the 1985 season before retiring for good gives readers of the letter 30-plus years later a chuckle. But the opening line isn’t the only irony in McGrane’s letter. Toward the end, he wrote the following:
Good luck. I was thinking, Hartman’s pretty close on retirement age… maybe you can make a fly-fisherman out of him.
McGrane made reference to Tribune co-worker and Grant’s lifelong friend, columnist Sid Hartman, who was considered “close to retirement” in 1984 – and yet Hartman, who turned 98 in March of 2018, continues to go strong.
Page chuckles over the phone, joking with me that Sid has truly outlasted “all of us.”
“I mentioned that Bill was a writer and he had this way with words, and he also had a sense of humor. But it was a subtle sense of humor,” Page said. “He could see the irony in things. He was, certainly in terms of people on the Vikings management back in those days and with the Bears, he was one of our favorites.”
Added Page: “Bill was a very good guy.”
Former Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich was known more for his affinity for bocce ball than of football, but he held Vikings Head Coach Bud Grant in high regard.
While Grant was recognized by his stoicism, Perpich garnered a reputation for an off-the-wall personality and unconventional ideas not previously seen in the Twin Cities office.
In a 1977 Washington Post article, reporter Bill Peterson wrote the following:
"He’s been called 'Crazy Rudy,' the 'Lone Ranger' and the 'disappearing governor' for his antics. But his unorthodox style and his record of dealing with a series of ticklish issues have left him in an unusually strong political position for a man unknown to many state voters when he was appointed to office last December."
Grant and Perpich were quite different from one another, but both established themselves as characters in their own right, and both became well-respected leaders in Minnesota.
Perpich, the oldest son of a Croatian immigrant who mined iron ore, grew up in the Mesabi Iron Range and was the state’s first Roman Catholic governor. Although his approach to politics was progressive, Peterson described Perpich as having a “strictly Midwestern” style. He wrote:
It is Main Street populism, a combination of small-town naiveté and openness, sprinkled with an affinity for the underdog.
[Perpich] spends days visiting county fairs and shopping centers, getting what he claims is a cross-section of public opinion. He plunges impulsively into issues some politicians wouldn't touch.
Peterson’s article referred to Perpich as “the accidental governor”; initially serving as the Lieutenant Governor, Perpich’s promotion came about after Jimmy Carter chose Walter Mondale as his running mate. When Carter was elected in 1976, Mondale vacated his Senate seat to become Vice President, Gov. Wendell Anderson appointed himself to fill Mondale’s Senate seat, and Perpich became Minnesota’s newest governor.
Once in office, however, Perpich earned the respect of the people. While he was defeated in 1978 by Albert Quie, Perpich was elected once again in 1982 and remained Governor until 1990, when he was defeated by Arne Carlson. Perpich passed away in 1995 after a battle with cancer.
Perpich earned attention for his love of bocce ball, a passion he wished to share with the state of Minnesota.
In 1977, The Daily Journal (Fergus Falls, Minnesota) reported that Perpich and Frank Betera, chairman at the time of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, were donating their salary increases “toward helping communities purchase bocce balls.” Together, the duo contributed $22,000 a year for the bocce ball fund.
Football may not have been Perpich’s first love, but he did, however, play a significant role in moving the Vikings indoors from Metropolitan Stadium.
In 1977, Gov. Perpich announced support for a covered stadium. The Minnesota Legislature passed, and Perpich signed “Laws of Minnesota 1977, chapter 89,” which created the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission (MSFC) and included financing provisions for sports facilities in the metropolitan area.
It was that movement by Perpich that set in motion what would become the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, which opened in downtown Minneapolis in 1982. The new venue was named after former Minneapolis Mayor, U.S. Senator, U.S. Vice President and dedicated Vikings fan Hubert Humphrey. Perpich attended Humphrey’s funeral in 1978.
When Grant announced his retirement following the 1983 season, Perpich reached out to the head coach via letter.
Perpich’s letter – typed on Office of the Governor letterhead – is, on the surface, formal. And yet, the message includes nuggets of personal connections between the two leaders.
The Governor referenced Grant’s decision to walk away from the gridiron and the way it “threw the sports fraternity for a loop,” made a comparison to politics and mentioned Grant’s hunting comrades, Norb Berg and “the Old Trapper.”
Perhaps understanding another side of Grant’s nature, Perpich opened the letter by sending well wishes and an expectation that Grant’s retirement wasn’t truly walking away from the game entirely.
Perhaps Perpich knew even before the legendary coach – not only would Grant return for one more season of coaching, but he would remain a consultant with the Vikings for decades to come.
The connection between the late Dr. David Dehen and the Minnesota Vikings ran deep.
Dehen served as the Mayor of North Mankato from 1981-94. Each of those summers, he enjoyed the caravan of Purple and Gold that would roll into town for Vikings training camp, which was hosted at Mankato State College (now Minnesota State University, Mankato) from 1966-2017.
“That was a great boost to the city and always has been, for the 52 years they were down here,” said Mark Dehen, David’s son and current North Mankato Mayor.
“[My father] really always enjoyed having the Vikings here and hosting them for training camp, and all the pomp and circumstance that went along with that.”
Interestingly, long before he became a city official, David had built a rapport with the team through his practice as a chiropractor.
“His original relationship with the Vikings was working on the players when they came down for training camp,” Mark explained. “The players were looking for any edge to keep them physically healthy for camp as they worked to make the team. He worked with a lot of the Vikings in the ’60s and ’70s – [including] Fred Cox, who was the kicker and eventually became a Doctor of Chiropractic, as well.
“And my father was a bigger guy, so he worked well with the Vikings – the bigger, physical guys that he was dealing with,” Mark added.
Growing up in the Mankato area and being around the Vikings during training camp, Mark developed an affinity for football that matched his father’s.
The current mayor recalled visiting camp each summer as a young boy and standing beside his father on the sideline, watching in admiration as players approached and greeted his father. And then there were the games the two attended at Met Stadium, bundled up against the bitter winters that so starkly contrasted August in Mankato.
“I specifically remember one game … Sammy White caught a pass, came running [toward] the end zone to score the touchdown, and somebody came up behind him and knocked the ball out of his hand,” Mark said. “And then he had to slink over to the sidelines and face Coach Grant after not scoring the touchdown.”
David Dehen passed away in 2006 at the age of 67. Reflecting back on the impact he left on the Mankato community, Mark said his father is remembered as being a “really well-liked, pretty affable guy” who connected easily with people.
“People liked to come up and talk to him all the time,” Mark said. “He was always out and about doing things, and he had a relationship with people of all stripes from across our community.”
Grant and the Vikings, in turn, left an impact on the former mayor, and Mark isn’t surprised to hear more than 30 years later that his father wrote to Grant following his retirement.
“He really enjoyed his interaction with the Vikings when they were here and the opportunity to meet with them and do things with them – both as a fan and later, then, as mayor.”
