RIP: Jim Marshall
Long-time Captain and a Viking fan favorite. 270 consecutive games played plus some more post-season-- back when the season was only 14 games long, meaning he started at defensive end every game for more than 19 years.
Very generous and colorful guy, as well as adventurous. Known for running the wrong way with a fumble for a 66 yard TD (er, safety), he was the gentle giant on the line with Eller and Page. He may also be remembered for getting stranded in a blizzard on a snowmobile trip that left one person frozen to death as a result (a trip where Jim also had driven his snowmobile off a cliff)-- he started a campfire to keep warm with others by burning his own money. A couple of other mishap stories are attributed to him as well -accidentally shooting himself while cleaning his gun and still playing that week; breaking an arm and leg hang-gliding into a pole; and having a boat dock give way and tossing him into the water with a broken leg-- these last two after he retired.
I grew up watching this guy play every Viking game I ever saw through my sophomore year in college, and at a dozen or so training camps in Mankato. You will be missed, big Jim.
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Now watch what you say, or they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal
Won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable
If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th US President.
Last edited by nolemmings; 06-03-2025 at 03:11 PM.
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