2023 - Pre-Draft Parties - Stu Voight - Rickey Young - Paul Krause

The Vikings and Miller Lite brought us Pre-Draft Parties. I had the honor to host with Vikings Legends Stu Voight, Rickey Young & Paul Krause!
There were a lot of Bud Grant stories, Draft memories & Minnesota Vikings stories.
Stu talked about he and Bud being racket-ball buddies. Rickey told a great story of his former college teammate and roommate, Walter Payton. And Hall Of Famer shared how he and Bud Grant were championship Bocce Ball teammates.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's time for Vikings Country, broughtto you by Miller Lite. Now here's
your host of Vikings Country from kfaN and the Vikings Radio Network. Must
thanks again for coming out to Jimmy'shere for our Miller Lite pre draft parties.
I got my special guest here Stuvoidladies and gentlemen, Vikings legend give

(00:22):
it up for him here and Jimmy'sWe appreciate it. Number eighty three tight
end for your Minnesota Vikings eleven seasons. Four of the Vikings you played in
one hundred and thirty one games,one hundred and seventy seven receptions, one
nine hundred and nineteen yards, seventeentouchdowns, and out of all of those
stats, I would guess that thetouchdowns you remember the most. Oh yeah,

(00:45):
and in fact the last the touchdownof the Super Bowl was kind of
special too, although it wasn't Unfortunatelywe're on the low end of a score
against the Oakland Raiders, but it'salways fun to get the end zone.
And you see some of these filmscome postseason time every year or so,
some good good memories. But I'veforgot many of the store scores and statistics.
But the guys I played with inthe situation with the fans and Viking

(01:10):
football in general is something I'll neverforget. You always hear your athletes talk
about this, and I know asa golfer, I'm not calling myself an
athlete, but I asked a golfer, you always remember the bad shots,
some of the good ones you forgetas an athlete. I hear people say
that as well, or it's likeI remember some of the worst plays more
than they do the really good ones. Is that true, Well, I

(01:30):
think it's absolutely true. I'm kindof a golfer myself, and yeah,
you and I can't wait till theseason start. You're wearing scramble specialists.
I've lost the long ball nowadays.But I was thinking of Jordan Spieth yesterday
in the in the in the golftournament, a couple of game together,
well, he had a couple ofputs that could have gone in to win,
and that course, this young kidthen sticks win about three feet away
to win the tournament. I'm going, like boy and golf, that would

(01:53):
stick with me a long time.I'd be thinking about that for years and
years. Of course, the paydaysbetween first and second, it's probably eight
hundred thousand dollars. Oh yeah,I think it was even closer. I
mean as far as like, now, how much money, I don't know
if was that a designated tournament itwas, yes, okay, then it's
more yeah then yeah, and thenit's probably went like three mill to two
mill. Yeah. Yeah, Sothat those those persons have changed quite a

(02:16):
bit. And that's a lot differentthan that. Oh yeah, I could
have should have. Would you getthat in football too? If only I
was open on that play? WhishI would have got that ball. So
some of those that but I thinkmostly you remember the good times and this
was certainly a great place to play, and we had great teams, and
I get a kick out of Vikingfootball. I'll gets bigger and bigger and
better and better every year, whichis neat. Yeah. Absolutely. Do

(02:38):
you get the hell out of thetown when it's this cold and this miserable,
this entire winter which is yet togive up even as of yesterday.
Well, I enjoyed the three dayswe had over eighty maybe eighty five,
was taking walks down with my wifein Apple Valley and where we live,
and then all of a sudden,it's back to normal. But from playing
college baseball. We're reminiscing about aold teammate and adversary, Noel Jenkie from

(03:01):
o Watana. Then, yeah,you try to play in college baseball up
here in uh when it's April fifteenthand you're playing the golfers in a double
header and it's thirty seven degrees andyou're you're using wood bats and it's kind
of like man, so they putone on your hands. You feel that
for weeks. Yeah, but Imean you love playing, but man,
that's baseball should be played when it'sad degrees. Yeah. Stuvoid is my

(03:23):
guest here as we're hanging out gettingready for the big draft party, and
we're gonna talk about the draft andthen your own experiences and that just coming
up here in a bit. Youwent to You're from Madison, Wisconsin,
you played at you wh you arethe if I have this right, you
are currently still the last three sportathlete not just played, but you lettered

(03:46):
yes, yes, in the Bigten, right I think? And actually
the guy before me was Noel Jenkie, you would three sport guy with the
golfers. He's won one year olderthan I am. And in those days
it was kind of a feather inyour cap to play different sports. You
could do that. Seasons didn't quiteoverlap as in the training periods. Would
I've done it again, Yeah,probably not. I was a baseball prospect

(04:08):
and a track and field guy,so I did that during the winter,
but about to change things around,and probably could have been a little bit
better in baseball when you're not playingso much and doing so much weightlifting to
be a thrower and track that kindof goes against the grain in baseball.
But had a lot of fun,a lot of great teammates in all sports,
and that was the day that probablythere's probably a lot of potential three

(04:30):
sport athletes today. But specializations thekey. If you want to get into
baseball or football or hockey, specializationsthe thing, and that usually brings you
a nice payday at the end ofthe rainbow. Well, yeah, they
start the kids at like five onthat. I think that's well, but
none, that's ridiculous. Some ofsome of these, uh, great hockey
players that you know, commit early, they could easily be great baseball players

(04:53):
or different. Uh. Talking touh Larry Thompson, the coach of Lakeville
last night at a function and you'resaying all these guys, you know,
we want he wants some on thefootball team. They say, no,
no football, I'm gonna play hockeyand that's it. Wow, And they're
kind of get the last laugh becausethey're the pros. Nown So, yeah,
I guess Madison, Wisconsin, madtown was it like it is now

(05:15):
back when you were going to school, because I honestly was just at a
wedding a couple three weeks ago.I was at a wedding in Madison,
and I swear it went as Iexpected it would go. A wedding in
Madison. Two people had to goto the er. I mean, you
get into that spotted cow. Theydo some weird stuff on that at Madison's

(05:36):
called that's called a Thursday Night orsomething. That's not even the thing anymore.
No fact, when I were inschool in the inn at dating myself
in the sixties, they always hadPlayboy did ranking of the party schools and
Madison have been up there for acouple of years and one year old they
would drop from the roster and theysaid, no, Madison, they're not
putting in the rankings because they're ina league by themselves. And it wasn't

(05:58):
it's fun plays, fun play thesports now was when I was there.
Of course, the Big ten wasthe big two in the little eight Ohio
state and Michigan dominated, and allthe other teams fought for the spoils to
win a few games, so itwasn't a question of who is going to
win. And there's only one bowlgame that was the Rolls Bowl, so
it wasn't like I'm team different bowlswhere if you went six and five you

(06:19):
got a bowl entry somewhere. Buta lot of fun. Good good town,
good college town. They shared topbilling once the Packers start, but
it's still the Badgers of the Packersbattle for top billing. When you were
talking about getting just getting a fewwins, getting scraps, I don't want
to bring it up, but youwhen you say a few three is what?

(06:40):
Yes, Xackie, you were thereand they were all in your senior
season's right? Oh yeah, thatwas very tough. I mean, you
think you're a good football player andyou hopefully have some assirations go on behind
after college football. But that wasit, and we uh gee would play
a preseason. Now that you Bigten guests, they can load up with

(07:02):
some easier wins. But we playedUSC, Oklahoma and Syracuse. Are your
nine conference games all top ten teams? You're kind of going and then you
start the season, you know,so it's like wow, So you don't
have a lot of talents to startkicking a guy when he's done through went
through three head coaches. Stu Boidhe is my guest here as we're hanging

(07:25):
out getting ready for the draft.We definitely are going to talk a little
draft here and your own experiences.Plus we do want to talk about Bud
Grant coming up here, guess alittle bit. But I got some other
stuff here for you as you werein the Athletic Hall of Fame at UW
which is amazing, and obviously withthe three sport letterman, that's that's absolutely
spectacular. Congratulations. Three other thingsfor three is a magic number for you

(07:47):
here, right. I mean SchoolhouseRock was a great show I remember as
a kid. But yeah, threeSuper Bowls that you got the opportunity to
play in with the Minnesota Vikings.That was a dream come true. Never
thought you know, beat a Packerfan growing up and to other fans,
you can be converted from a Packerfan to the Viking fan. I'm not

(08:09):
sure you don't have to marry intothat. No, No, that's actually
that happened. And I don't thinkmy parents ever quite converted. Although And
in the seventies we had kind ofa good dominance over the Packers, so
it was easier to go home toa successful season. It was to be
in the college the college ranks.But interesting with the Super Bowls looking back,

(08:30):
and we were talking about I thinkyou mentioned named Bed Grant. Of
course we'd miss him dearly and agreat friend and racketball partner. But it
was the fifty year anniversary of myfirst Super Bowl was seventy three against the
Dolphins. Yeah, and so theyhad an NFL alumni banquet and Budd and
Carl Eller and Chuck Formed myself arereminiscing. And you don't even realize.

(08:52):
I mean, you went into thatgame saying, well, Vike's gonna win
that Super Bowl. Well you lookback, I did little research. In
seventy two. Of course, theDolphins were underfeeded team, the only team
to be underfeated, and I thinkwe actually had him beat in uh and
then that the year we had himbeat Bob Lurtzonoe, who denies it happened.
But they got a roughing the quarterback, they got next to play and

(09:13):
they beat a seventeen to fourteen onthe last second touchdown. But you know,
you think you're gonna win that game. And I never even not a
naive guy at all, but didn'tknow about point spreads and who was I'm
sure they were the favorite. Andthen of course when we played the next
year the Steelers, they were emergingwith the Bradshaws and the Frank o'haris and

(09:35):
Jack hamm and so you know,I mean, and then the one in
January seventy seven against the Raiders.I'm not sure we were favorite in any
of those games. I as anathlete, said well, we're gonna win,
and it didn't work out. Idon't think we ever played our best
football in one of those Super BowlsI was in. But to the victor
go the spoils. And I thinkthat has hurt a guy maybe like Ed
White, Chuck Foreman, Jim Marshall, from being where they're right for the

(10:00):
deserve and that's in the in theHall of Fame. But that's the way
the game's played to the winners Uh, we're talking about who wins in the
golf tournament. It goes it's ait's a big chunk of change in second
or third. Right, Yeah,what what was the Super Bowl hoopla?
Like? I mean because obviously nowit's you know, you start to broadcast
the day before then they have allthe concerts and the halftime shows and celebrities

(10:24):
all over the place and stuff likethat. We're there are a bunch of
celebrities and that. Well, asyou say, we had this banquet.
We did a little research on that. In the Super Bowl against the Dolphins,
what do you think the halftime showwas? Oh, I'll give you
a clue, Miss Texas playing thefiddle backed up by the Texas Band.

(10:46):
The game, you know it wasin Houston, and uh, you know
there's no hoopla enough thing. There'sa and uh you know sell out COMBA.
You know we've stayed at a motorhotel with where you could drive up
have cars. But it was nota big deal, no, you know,

(11:07):
seclusion. It was kind of andand the and the big beef during
that game was that because the AFLwas the home team, they got the
Houston Oilers practice facilities. We practicedat a high school, allside of high
school in the field and the lockerroom hit some birds flaying around. Remember
Bud getting all upset about that,and that was a big deal. Now

(11:28):
I'm going like, wow, youknow it was like it sounds like Continental
League football or something like that.Stevoids buying. Guest here as we're hanging
out, we were talking about thedraft. Of course, the big draft
party comment up and the draft tenhas completely changed. Uh, as you
know when now we're doing the Thursdaywhere you're gonna do the first round and
it's prime time and the whole works. You were drafted, as you already

(11:50):
mentioned, but you're drafted in thetenth round. What was that like?
I mean, you were sitting ona couch with the family getting ready for
a phone call or well the phonecall as I recall, there was I
would have watched it on TV ifif it was on TV, and maybe
maybe bits and pieces and clips onthe ten o'clock sports, but not a
big deal. You'd In those daysthey had different scouting they call them combine.

(12:15):
So I was scouted and I wasI was a running back through college,
so I was a little bit undersized. I'd played a little kind of
a kind of a hybrid tight endposition, blocked a little bit round,
a little bit, caught the football. So I go, okay. You
know, I knew I was gonnabe a first round I thought it might
be a little higher than I was. But you wait around, there's no
indication. You know, somebody's calling. We'll be calling fifteen. I was.

(12:37):
It was in the second day ofthe draft, and they call,
and it was a guy named FrankGilliam who Viking fans well No, ended
up being a scout, and alongwith Jerry Reikow there were the Vikings had
two scouts in their whole organization then, and in fact, the Vikings when
I went to sign my contract,the Vikings office was in Southtown, and
when they left Southtown to go toFrance Avenue, that Viking office became a

(13:01):
radio shack. Yeah, right bythe Southtown theater. I mean, as
you walk in and I think buddhead, four coaches at the assistance,
and a couple of secretaries. Soin other words, I'm giving an image
it was. To me, itsounded a big time as can be,
you know, but not looking backwards, you saying wow, you know,
and you can't find a radio shackanywhere you know exactly anymore, that's for

(13:24):
sure. When the draft comes upto do you pay a lot of attention
to it? I mean, ifyou were to, you know, speculate
here as we have the twenty thirdin the first round, what the Vikings
are going to do or what youwould like to see the Vikings do.
There's so many people talking about maybea trade up, try to go get
yourself quarterback that can then take overafter Cousins has gone, which he has

(13:46):
just the one more year so far, depending on how they work out that,
but or do they go defensive line, because we definitely need defense wide
receiver. We don't need a tightend. I don't think no, I
think we've got a real good tightend. He already came on strong and
that's uh. He kind of dislikehim just a little bit because he went
to Iowa a little bit. Yeah, you know, but no, I

(14:07):
think he uh what a deal.I mean that I can't imagine why Detroit
would let him go. And uh, of course you never know with money
situations, who's coming up. You'vegot to put all that together, like
when's the contract come due? Whatdo what how's the injury situation? But
it's, um, I look backnow, it's fifty years in nineteen seventy

(14:28):
three, we we drafted a kidout of the University of Miami who I
followed football. I go, well, he's just running back from Miami late
twenty second twenty third choice in thefirst round by the name of Chuck Foreman,
and you know, and you couldget him and go like, well,
this is he must be pretty good. But then he comes to camp
and you go, wow, whocould who could have been a higher draft

(14:48):
choice than this guy? Right rookieof the year. And we go to
the Super Bowl and he was fabulous, learned you know, quick study under
Bill Brown and Dave Osborne and OscarRead and a few others. That what
a great kid, what a greatplayer he became. But so you know,
yeah, you know, everybody focuseson the first round. I take
it as a quarterback business. Ifyou don't have a quarterback, and uh,

(15:09):
you know that those are the guysare going to be in the first
five. And but it's, um, we've gotten some great draft choices.
You gotta stuvoid in the tenth round. I think stot studwell in the twelfth
round. Uh, Sammy White maybethe I think it's in the second round.
And right, you know, bothChuck and Sammy were Workie of the
Year, So yeah, you gotto do your study and do your homework.

(15:31):
Even some free agents could sneak inthere. But it's it's you know,
the TV is uh, you know, the TV has made sports,
uh in football, the uh likeHollywood you know, yeah, for sure
spectacle and I mean who would havethought that'd be uh, that'd be broadcasting
the the workout days where you knowthey guy guy's running forty yard dashes and

(15:52):
jump them, not vac job,you know, or giving them. I
always thought that was an oxymorone.Them IQ tests, you know, you
put the guys with a low IQas you put those guys on defense.
Usually guys I could least remember afew plays on offense. So it's but
it's big business and it's you knowwhat's gonna happen. I think drafts,
drafts in Kansas City, yep,And I mean that'll be a that'll be

(16:15):
a Hollywood production show and they'll troutout somebody that was the first pick.
Well, we've got you know,Marcus Allen for the Raiders or something,
and it's it's I mean, it'sfun. I think the Vikings even I'm
a season ticket holder of many years, and one of the little spiffs was
they're gonna pick somebody to go downto bring out one of the cards for

(16:36):
the h I would have done it. That'd been fun. Yeah, absolutely,
But I don't think in fact,I'm sure that was not a thing
ten years ago, fifteen years ago. No, you know, are you
like the rest of us is?You know, Vikings fans that regardless who
they pick, if they do takethat first round pick, if they move

(16:56):
up and get a pick, ifthey move back and they go into the
second round, but whoever they getas a very first pick, do you
also go through that hole? Eitherthis is the best thing that's ever happened
to this team. He were horre. You go, what in the hell
are they thinking? Yeah, wenever thought he'd be available. That's that
would go. No, it's andit's I say, it's it's getting to

(17:18):
be a science, but it'll neverbe an exact science. You know,
I remember the name. You probablyremember the name Tony Tony Mandridge. Oh
absolutely, well, you know,Michigan State guy. And I was covered
football with the badges covered him,and he was a man child in the
in the Big ten. I'm goinglike, oh my gosh, he was
Sports Illustrated every twenty and cut upand I'm going, oh, okay,
then mean this and he gets tothe Packers all of a sudden, I

(17:41):
think they might have had some drugtesting and different things. So he shrinks
a little bit. Yeah, Idon't think he played more of a year
or to it he was. Imean, he was like like, if
there's never can't miss, this isa guy when he missed by a long
shot, and he's probably out offootball within a couple of years. You
know, you referenced this earlier,Stu, when you were talking about how
you grew up and was in Madison, Wisconsin. Andy of your parents were

(18:03):
big Packer fans, and they couldn'tquite seem to turn over to be a
Vikings fan. Even when you're playingwith the Vikings. They're just supporting their
son as much as humanly possible.Then right when you were done playing with
the Vikings and they instantly go backto hating the Vikings. Oh, they
liked the other that's it's it's areligion down there. I would laugh for
even when I was playing that,uh beat me on the outside of Lambeau,

(18:26):
and I had some good games againstthe Packers and then you nice game,
son, you know. And andthen when I was broadcasting the games
for years for the vikings, they'dbe talking all of a sudden and say,
well, Max McGee was talking aboutthis. I'm going he was doing
the Packer games and it was wasit the guy tried to take into the
play by play guy that did gamesfor years, not way Laravy but before'

(18:51):
but you know, so I'm going, jeez, you're listening, I'm on
the air. It's your son.Maybe not your favorite son, but yeah,
so that's yeah. And then oh, it goes further back than that.
In the sixties. You'd be achurch and uh, he was sitting
there and all of a sudden,that gonna be Ray Scott and Tony cannady

(19:11):
or doing the games on TV getyour trade table out and the Swans and
TV dinner and yes, boy,if the Preacher ever went along and heard
my dad be shaking a Chaine inhis pocket and looking and oh man and
the exodus. After that, youhad to get because the game started to
write at one o'clock and you hadto be set. I mean then afterwards
knock on doors, Hey, whowants a sideyard football game? And yep,

(19:34):
I'll be boy Dollar. You canbe Carol Dale and here we do,
here we go. Yeah, youalways gotta claim your favorite player on
that. You retired nineteen eighty andthen you jump into the broadcast booth and
then you realize how much we don'tknow as broadcasters and how easy this job
is. Well, yeah, andthe fun of that, and it was
fun. And the guys nowadays,do you know Paullen and uh Pete,

(19:56):
Pete. Wonderful job and the funto ye all. Ben's the best.
And he's good on TV too,Oh yeah, oh yes, it's so
sad that he's hideous. You knowthey're doing doing the omelet of the day
or whatever they're doing about a goodguy. Yea. The best times I

(20:18):
had to earl was early on.I worked with Ray Scott for four years,
and ge would be Ray. Ifelt like I'd go to Ray Scott
and Jack Buck. Then Jack Buckworked with Hank Stram, and you're saying
Hank could have a little what dothey call they put a pocket square and
saying Dray and Natty and uh,these guys would be talking some of these
games. The broadcast is way back. I mean they're during what they call

(20:42):
the Ice Bowl that these guys weredrinking on the air. They said,
Jay, Ray, you would drinkall the pepper and schnops and it was
only the first quarter, and I'mgoing like what Yeah, But to me
that the history of football and meetingsome of the guys from the way Back
Gang, the Paul Hornings and theJim Taylor's and played golf with Lawrence Taylor,

(21:06):
and I mean this is a dreamcome true to a football player slash
sports fan in general. That wassome of these broadcasters were over the top.
And Ray was wonderful and worked withJoe McConnell, a great broadcaster.
Brad Nessler is still working. Ithink Yep, Dan Roe rest in peace,
wonderful guy. And yeah, itwas. It's all been fun and
now it's the fun is getting biggerand bigger because the game has gotten so

(21:30):
much bigger. I think, wouldwe've been having a draft party fifteen twenty
years ago, I mean mostly yetpre draft party, before the draft,
we'd be drinking drafts probably, Yeah, Yeah, well that's the thing here.
Yeah, we're not in the broadcastbooth. Should we can have our
Miller lights here as people are hangingout. We got prizes that we're giving
away. We got the street teamershere from the Minnesota Vikings. Also are

(21:52):
Miller light ladies are here as well. Um, Bud Grant. Sadly we
lose Bud Grant. Um. Iknow that France Tarkington was supposed to be
on U. He was gonna beon the radio and Cafe n and he
just he couldn't do it. Hejust absolutely couldn't do it. Obviously,

(22:14):
I'm guessing there are a lot ofbut stories like you mentioned you guys used
to play racketball together. Yeah,and did his you know, the Little
five seven been the show before ongame day And what a guy as a
as a coach, you know,I really you know he was Jim Finks,
our former general manager. He wasin the Hall of Fame, said,
how would you categorize or talk aboutBud Grant And somebody doesn't know him,

(22:40):
Well, first of all, helooks like I think just getting Bill
McGrain a piergo had to pick himup when he came in before my time
from Winnipeg to take the job.He says, look for the guy looks
like the town sheriff, you know, brand Rod straight, you know,
and the piercing eyes. And uh, that was Budd. I mean I
didn't put but I play well forhim. But three four years you didn't.

(23:02):
You tried to avoid him because youknow, you never said anything first
of all, and it was you'reyou know, we had to think of
a comeback. You're always kind ofnervous. But then once you get done
with that, traveled and I wasdoing the games too. I think we
went to London and Sweden, differentthings. That couldn't have been a better
guy, you know, I wouldsay it's a Bud Bud Grant, I
think most people know a wonderful athlete. Yeah, oh yeah, I mean

(23:25):
he was of course played Minneapolis Lakers. Yeah, I think he might have
been a Rookie of the Year withthe Eagles and then No One, Buddy,
he probably got eighty dollars more tocome up to Winnipeg. He so
he took that and Cott played bothways and he's still in um in Wisconsin.
Kind of a legend pitching pitching baseball. Yeah, and he would pitch
for like Hastings and they're going againstmaybe uh Duran or something like that,

(23:48):
and he'd hit a couple of homeruns and pitch a five hitter or something
like that. He'd and I knowthis for a fact, Bob, the
McNamara brothers, Bob and Pinky wentand played with Hastings. Some go for
former great passed away that Bud wouldrequire fifty dollars in a shower, and
then so they got together and theyshower at the McNamara's house. But then
after the game he'd go to thedurant and say, well, you know,

(24:11):
I could be doing this for younext week for seventy five dollars.
And so he would they say heuh squeezed at to nickel till the buffalo
pooped, you know, and hewould. But playing racquetball with him,
it was and having just the conversationswere wonderful to he. You know,
he would not be known as anex and no guy really of like a

(24:32):
Jerry Burns or a Bill Walsh thatkind of invented the game. He'd stick
his finger in the air and say, well, the wind's gonna change probably
in the third quarter, so we'lldo this, and then and it always
worked out. He would We hadsome of the funniest moments that he'd have
a kicking game workout before the daybefore the game at met Stadium, and
he would come in his camouflage likehe was gonna go hunting afterwards, and

(24:56):
he had ducks to fly over andhe Fred Cox could be kicking forty five
yard few goals. He was walkingto him, they're flying down near the
river, so we'll be headed downthere. And then we would stay at
the Holiday Inn on the thirty fourthAvenue in four ninety four in those days,
and he'd always come in, butI think we had to be there
at seven o'clock. He'd come inand his camouflage, he just, you
know, like he been hunting allday. I think coaches today would be,

(25:18):
you know, scribbling off plays andif I got to get one more
off tackle play before you know that. And so he had ice water in
his veins. And UH got toknow the family, great family, and
he lost his son, Bruce hada brain cancer and died, and so
he's had some and his wife PatPat passed away years ago. But UM

(25:41):
just at a banker with him,and I remarked to you I think Mark
Blane. I said, gee,but physically a little frail, you know,
he was in a wheelchair, butsharp as attack, remembered things from
the seventies, and I said,oh, you know, I think he's
gonna live for everybody. Everybody goeslike we hope he does. And right
six days later, I think hepassed away very peaceful. I was in

(26:04):
California at the time. He's alegend, not not just in for all
Viking fans, but I think infootball in general. He kind of set
a real different standard than most coacheswould only wish they could live up to.
Yeah, he had a big impactearly on in my life, and
I didn't really understand it until later. My dad would never take days off

(26:26):
working to Federated down there, Antanaand uh but every year during training camp,
he'd take a day off and he'dtake my brother and I we'd head
over to Mankano State. You watchhim training camp. Well, of course
you got your notepad there as alittle kid, he got your pen and
you're running up there. And Iwas back when you actually could go right
up there. Yes, yeah,you know, there wasn't the gates and

(26:48):
you know, the barriers and stufflike that. So everybody's mad, scrambled
and all these kids and I droppedmy pen. So I'm standing there because
I'm getting nobody's autograph, right,no, and would share their pen with
me because they're all getting their ownautographs. So I'm, you know,
sobbing there a little this little guy. I'm sobbing there standing there, And
all of a sudden, the shadowcomes over because I'm looking down like this,

(27:11):
and uh, he goes, uh, are you doing okay? And
I said, you know, Idropped my pen. I'm not getting any
autographs. My brothers are getting allthe autographs. They dropped my pen.
He goes, well, I'll tellyou what. If I give you my
pen, can I sign your book? And I said fine, and he
signed it, and I looked up, you know, and he's there in
all purple and everything, and lookedup and then walked back to the truck,

(27:34):
met up with my brother and mydad, and my dad's of course
going, oh, who'd you allget? Let's see it, let's see
it. My brother's showing off allthat kind of stuff. I'm still a
little weepy about it. And mydad got, well, Mikey, who'd
you get I go and I showedhim the autograph. He goes, you
got Bud Grant's autographs. I go, yeah, I gave me his pen

(27:56):
too. I still love him.Oh there, oh yeah, yeah.
So that was just huge. Ohthe whole right home. My brother was
crying, I've gotten Bud Grants.That's funny. Yeah, just just yeah.
I know. He easy and along and we lost Jerry Burns year
or two before that. He wasthe same way. Although it's amazing two

(28:18):
guys could be more different than eachother. I mean, one would hunting
and fishing and you know, heall that stuff, and he my dad
was head d and Iron Wisconsin.So they got to become friends. And
Bud was really not a hunter orfisherman, but a very conservation you know,
take care of the land and thewater. Oh yeah, yeah.
Well Jerry was like, you know, his joke would tell buddy, Yeah,

(28:41):
he says, I like to goout and shoot a few walleye he
said. And and he did likeanything about hunting or fishing or But they
got along perfectly because their purpose wasto mold a good football team. I
mean that I think, but andI think he let he let guys be
individual some extent. I mean therewas some different things to hair and mustaches

(29:03):
and beards and all that that maybehe was a little behind the step on
that, but he you know,everybody wasn't the same. They treated guys
the way they should be treated.Discipline was the key, and I think
that still goes a long ways today. That's great. Thank you for sharing
those stories. All right, Iwant you to be really honest with me.
Okay, we've talked about Wisconsin,talked about Madison, Dane County.

(29:26):
Keep this in mind. I readthis the best skinny dipping spots in the
United States. This is coming froma dating website called my Dating Advisor.
They compiled this list of a bunchof different places to go skinny dipping,
the best places to go skinny dippingand in the United States. The top

(29:47):
one is Washigal River in Washington.But second place Mazo Beach. Is that
how you pronounce it, Mazo Beach, Wisconsin. It's in Dane County,
Mazo, Mazo, Mazo Beach.You grew up there. Do you ever
do some skinny dipping there? MazoAh? Let's see, what's the statue

(30:10):
of limitations? Not recently. I'llsay that and the old days. Yeah,
that's a few other places. StuBoy, ladies and gentlemen, thank
you so much money for coming outand hanging out with this. Here.
We're gonna be giving away those ticketsfor the Draft party, and hopefully you
have signed up for that. We'llget the Plinko going again. We're gonna

(30:30):
play some games, we're gonna havesome Miller Lights. We're gonna give away
a bunch of prizes. But wewant to thank you guys all for coming
out, especially mister Stu Boy.Thank you, Bunny Buddy, love it
all right, Broadway Pizza, Thankyou guys so much for coming out with
Miller Light. K one out tookthe Vikings Radio Network. This is the
pre to the Draft Party. Infact, this is how you win Draft

(30:52):
party tickets, or at least oneof the ways you do at us Bank
Stadium. Of course, that's comingup on Thursday next week. I'm must
I'm your host and our very specialguest, ladies and gentlemen, Vikings fans
giving up. Ricky Young is withus number three four. Well, yeah,

(31:15):
you got a lot of backstap driversover here behind you. Yeah,
okay, here's here's something I haveto share with you, because well,
first I have a tiny bladder,and yeah, maybe it's a huge process.
I'm not sure, but I knowhow many steps every bathroom is away
in every bar that I've ever walkedin. I go in to the bathroom
here, Rodway, Pizza and Champlainand uh, you know, I'm just

(31:40):
doing up one of the stand upsthere, and I swear Journey was playing
overhead, and I believe the songwas done. Stop believe man. Someone's
in the stall, the closed stall, and I start hearing singing in there,
and I'm thinking to myself, Ican't wait to bring this up during
this show, And all sudden,Ricky comes just said I knew most of

(32:16):
the words. Thank you so muchfor joining us US, and I'm surprised
you're sticking around after that coming.Uh, we're here to talk a little
bit about the Viking's draft is comingup. Of course, we got the
twenty third pick. We'll get intoall that coming up here just a little
bit. But you played college footballat Jackson State University. Yes, you

(32:42):
were not only a teammate of WalterPate, you were also a roommate,
yes, for four years. Forfour years with Walter peate with sweetness.
Yes, m four years. Sookay, I just have to ask,
because when you're a roommate, youdo a lot of stupid s. You

(33:02):
do a lot of stupid stuff.Every roommate does stupid. What is like
the dumbest thing that you guys wouldeither argue about or you guys would decided
this was a good idea this way? What the hell are we thinking?
There's no way that you don't havea story about you and Walter Payton making

(33:24):
really good decisions as roommates for fouryears. Whatever good roommates stories about me
and Walton, they're always bad beingbought the room together for four years and
he was the best. I mean, if he drank one beer, he'd

(33:44):
be like almost passed up. I'dnever seen a guy in such good football
shape as Walton wasn't. It waslike he'd never drank ever did and it
was an incredible to say, wehave a beer and that's like, let's
be as silly as stupid. I'mclimbing a tree. Right in front of
our room was a tree, abig pane tree, and he climbed up
the pan tree and jump into thewindow. No, yes, he did

(34:07):
it all the time of all thetime, I'm like, god, what
he had. He had to killyourself. He's like, god, I
just wanted to try once a month. I don't. Don't do that,
man, They're gonna kill yourself.And yes, the coach was and he
was so incredibly I mean just thebest guy that you could ever be in
your life. I tell you quickStorry when he was here when he had

(34:30):
cancer at the mail and he stayedwith me and we'd drive up to the
mail clank like three times a weekand he'd go through the test and they
finally something found out that he hadcancer. And he says, well the
doctor. I'm standing in the roomwith him, and doctor said, I'm
like, bo, I got goodnews and badges. Well, so what's
the good news. It's like,we found out what it is and we

(34:52):
have a liver transplant, but thebadges to spread, so you only have
like six months. And he goeslike, boa, just sow me up
and give it to somebody else.Would that an odds of life? WHOA?
And that's the person that he wasthat he was, and it was
like incredible to be with him andbe around him and just to be a
part of his life. He wasthe most incredible guy. And what you

(35:14):
saw and I did, Walter Paytonthe Ward, There's no fake, nothing
about it. He was the bestguy you could ever be. Oh yeah,
and that's why he does have theWalter Payton the Ward now in the
NFL, which is is awesome.So you were drafted nineteen seventy five.
Yes, Uh, San Diego Chargersstill screw up to this day. I

(35:34):
know they're in LA, but it'sso easy to remember. Yeah, San
Diego. So you go to SanDiego right out of college and uh,
I mean, what kind of experienceis that? Southern California, beautiful weather?
You got what Dan Fouts, CharlieJoyner and oh look at that.
Bill Walsh was no kid. Hewas the oversea when he went there.

(35:59):
When I was that ol man.Wow, what does that say about your
skill set? When Bill Walsh asthe offensive coordinator probably has a say in
the room and says we got todraft this guy. I think it says
a lot. But he was likehe was so good with people. Just

(36:20):
it's kind of like Bud Jared Burns'slike he knew who he yelled at,
who we couldn't yell at. Andhe knew how to get the most out
of every player on the team andthat that's what it's all about. So
what was your draft experience like?He went seventh round and what was that
draft experience like? As we knowas we're getting ready for the draft party
and things are a little different now, yes than they were in But how

(36:43):
did your draft experience go? Wehad a pay phone on the wall and
our demmitory and they called and theylike, well, nobody could talk on
the phone, so they called andthey drafted Walter Paint. It was a
fourth Paint in the draft. AndRobert Brazil, who I went to kindergarten
with, was a seventh pick ofthe Houston Alas. And then it was

(37:05):
me, and then it was RodneyPhillips and and about six guys other guys
that got drafted that year from mywith my college. And it was like
it was kind of incredible with Braziland Walton, like we don't want to
be around. We want to makesure everybody gets the dudes and so they
could enjoy whatever else they get afterus. And uh, it was like

(37:29):
it was so intense to watch peoplecome from nothing to be here and get
the way they or no, itwas like it was. It was not
painful, but kind of intense,and it was a good experience. And
then so nobody else on the floorcould like call their parents. You cannot
talk on that. Damn we do. We are trying to get drafted.

(37:53):
Damn. It was a pay phonedeal. Yeah, yeah, man,
Oh yeah, believe me, I'mold enough that we didn't have call waiting
when I was growing up. Sohe had that long ass chord. Now
you dragging like Grandma's supposed to callit seven, get off the phone.

(38:13):
Oh yeah, I absolutely remember that. Uh so as a as a running
back, I mean a tremendous widereceiver, which as a running back,
which I love. When you cometo the Vikings your first year with the
Minnesota Vikings and I want to knowif you still give Chuck Foreman grief about
this is that you came in andbroke his single season record for receptions out

(38:36):
of the backfield. No, Inever get a brief about that. What
sometimes Yeah, that year Francis talkingto who was that? I think was
probably one of the smartest football playersI've ever been associated with. He knew
everything that could happen on the field. But it was gonna happen. How
I was gonna play out and hesays, breaking, you just keep doing

(38:58):
this, and I'm gonna come toyou having a thought to you, thought
to you, and later on inthe game, I'm gonna pump fake this
guy. You turned up the field. We're gonna test out. We need
a big play. And it alwaysalways played out with him. I remember
playing in Oakland. He drew playson the in the dirt on the field.
What we're gonna do is said,we'll get What the hell a coach
to say, this is what we'regonna do. And that's how much he
had and that Sue was as aplayer, he could do whatever he wanted

(39:21):
to do, and he did.He said, you better them make sure
it walks. So you got tradedfrom the Charters to shoot the Vikings.
I believe it was Ed White,right, Yeah, yeah, part of
the big trade. When you gettrade and you're coming to the Vikings,
you hadn't been super pumped because you'reon the back side of like, wow,
they've been to how many Super Bowls? Yea, And then you get

(39:44):
here and this is no shot atour at our favorite organization by any means,
who gave us these free sweet sweatshirts. You gotta feel. I mean,
it would have been nice to goto another super Bowl. It would
have been nice to actually went asuper Bowl. But you didn't lose any
of them. Nope, Nope,it wasn't me. It wasn't It wasn't
me. Uh Seil you already mentionedfran uh and you you know, Chuck

(40:10):
Foreman and Sammy White and Jim Marshall, Matt Blair, Amadra Shad. You
played with all those guys. I'mguessing that there's some pretty good stories that
lie in any one of those charactersare multiple ones, and anyone's that you
can share. I mean, we'vealready talked about sweetness, climbing up trees

(40:30):
and trying to jump into a balcony. Y. I guess you're another life.
So yeah, with all those,I mean, there's some big time
characters in all those names that wethrew out there. I mean, I
remember sitting backstage in an Oakridge Voiceconcert and I'm about to go on stage.

(40:50):
I'm okay, why don't you guy. You know, I'm some country
guys and I'm gonna bring them upon stage, And all of a sudden,
I seen Matt Blair backstage and he'slike, hey, mus what's going
on? And I'm like, whatare you doing here with the Old Ridge
Boys? He's got him arm inarm and lord he was like he became
like such good friends with the OldRidge Boys. Now when I never saw
coming. Yeah, I'm met thoseguys that had a friend of mine are

(41:13):
a huge Um what's the big youhaul place up in Saint Cloud? Blew
them all. They were had hishouse, Pus and I going out and
they had a big part of hissinging out in the back yard. Yeah,
what happened probably one of the funnesttime that I had in my life.
After you got your After I metthose guys, that was so much

(41:36):
fun. So you never know whatlife will take him, what could happen
for you to you, so youjust enjoy the ride. So you talked
about friends writing the plays basically inthe dirt and all that kind of stuff.
Uh, I mean you guys hadbeen pretty tight you and Chuck for
hman Um. Jim Marshall definitely acharacter. Do we have any any stories?

(41:59):
I was with Marshall last week.He is such a good guy and
it's like we used to go.And this was when what was it called
shi rock bucking on what p didit? Does the commercial us rock?
Yeah, this was like nineteen eightyseven, and Marsh us a care around
these big bottles of like three ofthem. If we're going to the bar

(42:21):
and say listen, these two foryou. Just keep pulling me and Rick
as much as we want them now. And a couple of times I've done
it was n't like, oh yeahI'm out man right now. Oh absolutely,
you had a couple pick me up. I don't know where I man,
I'm sneaking out right now on thestreets that we had the ten twenty

(42:45):
nine I don't know wherever, Comeget me. Ricky Young is are gash
hanging out here with the Minnesota Vikingsand of course Miller light in a bunch
of Vikings fans. Thank you guysso much for coming out. Really appreciate
that. In the back sto nineteenseventy five, we talked about this in
the NFL draft. Uh, numberone was Steve Barkowski from California. Yes,

(43:08):
he was number one overall. Uhdo you remember anybody else from that
seventy five draft? I mean,of course talked about sweetness. But one
of the other some noted names thatyou're like, damn, I came to
the same last Oh, it wasa lot of guys. What was the
guy that played with Dallas from Marylandfifty four played defensive end? He was

(43:30):
like the third picking between him andwall Day. Was it a white ed
White? That is white? Whatwas his name? It was like,
oh, Danny what Danny White?I know his last name? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Andhe's nasty, yes, yeah, he
was good. And there was atone of those guys that came on nineteen

(43:51):
seventy five. It was so manyreally really good players. Pakowski got a
lot of money and after that nobodygot paid. But oh so you retired
with the most receptions from running back. Yes, at that point in the
NFL, at that point in history, you had the most receptions when you
retire. Ye. Jerry Burns wasa big portion and a big reason for

(44:15):
that because he kind of innovated howan offense was run. Because for a
lot of people, you think,oh, purple people eater and you're thinking,
oh, yeah, they must suggestran the ball up and down.
But between even you and Chuck,I mean you guys, the ball was
being whipped around out of that backfield. If they would have won the Super

(44:35):
Bowl, it would be called aWest Coast office to be called the Midwest
Office. The Jerry Burns was sofar ahead of his time. He used
to tell Pregman to Hey, wewill operate on second and three seconds,
four through that ball, And thenit was so fun, said throw the
ball him and we're gonna go fromsect him and four second or three we

(44:57):
can do whatever the hell we wantedto do. Boy right, why why
Coach Burns? Those are about theonly words you could actually say that Coach
Burns actually said by the sideline handor man, the most colorful language I've
ever heard in my life. AndI always thought it was kind of a
bit until I'm doing the broadcast,and I happened when when we had the

(45:21):
games at TCF Bank with the oldGopher Stadium. Um, I would get
in at the same time, andit seemed like every home game that that
I would get in the same timeas Coach Burns, and I'd get in
the elevator and oh my god,we're only going up three stories, and
man, I felt like I neededto go to church, not gonna get

(45:42):
on the broadcast. You've never meta person I can swear and make it
so fun and just hilarious like youand polar opposite stop Coach Burns. Uh
is Bud Grant? Sadly we've lostBud Grant And Uh, I'm assuming that
you have a lot of fond memories, but also maybe maybe some memories that

(46:07):
you're like, oh, Coach's poto me now and and Bud could give
you a stare. Oh yeah,Bud to just look at your bath And
I'm still scared of him. Man, He's exact. When he was coaching,
I wouldn't play. I had playedtwenty years. I look at me,
Oh shit, what I do?Run? And they're doing a day
runs Like, no, he didn't. That's that's cool anyway. But Jared

(46:30):
Burns was so funny. The lifewas fun. I go over this house
I'm with Christmas and it's this bigvault to see with a big Christmas trip
there and the spider webs on atrip like Burns, what you think they
give me? Ship? What's upthat hellicat? I? What's up on
a damn tree? Boys? Arelationship? He was so incredibly funny,

(46:52):
just good. We had that Coacheswhen I played, Yeah, and the
coaches, yeah, we were talkingabout this offer. Yeah yeah, and
now there's nine per position. Yes, everybody could have Every coach could have
two players and they would be evenly. So so uh with Bud, I'll
never forget when he retired the firsttime, and I remember he came back

(47:16):
after Stecco came in for the yearand then but when he retired the first
time, I thought it was likeso interesting that the Minnesota Vikings organization ends
up giving him I believe, awhite a white im Paula, a four
door Sedan I Paula with a trailerhitch on it and a London fishing boat

(47:37):
and they brought it out on thefield check him into Bud. So when
he came back, I was like, I wonder if he's gonna get another
car boat? Do you have anyuh like like, yeah, stories you
want to share about Budd? Imean that wash. I mean obviously all
these years of garage sales and everythingelse. And have you ever been to

(47:59):
one of his rod house. I'vebeen up all the garage to today.
Boy, come on, So man, bud relationship was the fact that when
I got traded here from the sendaygoto play with the Vikers. Yeah,
And he and I and make Landssending his office and we shook hands and
I would said, hey, Iwould take that from his organizations to like

(48:19):
an tribute to it. Yeah,but when if I do play and I'm
here, this is what I want. And so that was a year let
the League of Receiving and I comeback and Mike Land says, hey,
we can't do what I told me. We understand. Okay, well that's
why I left the charges. I'mgetting the hell I'll go. I'll go
get a job teaching the night Gun. And a random Bud Grant outside and
he says, I'm Lake, it'sgonna see heah, you know the man

(48:40):
the Primer was together because people andso he says to me, it's like,
what's going on? I said,well, what we shook hands on
as a gentleman and mc lane saidhe can't do it. Now. He
goes, you go sit in myoffice. I'll be back, And it
took him about ten minutes. Hecomes back and what I had asked for
originally, I got ten dollars dollarsmore than i'd asked for, and another

(49:02):
twenty thollars I was warning a bonusthat was being but relationship. Yeah,
never said a word about net.We'd never talked said the word about it.
Was just go sign a damn countractrecord. Yeah. So, now
when you ever went to one ofhis garage sales, did you happen to
go like perusing through and then recognizeshit that was yours stuff, that stuff

(49:25):
that you had signed, And you'relike, Bud, he took everybody,
shit, everything, everybody dog foodstakes that he did everything, it was
his deal. Yeah. Yeah,I'm like, how can you have garage
sales for like twenty years? Howmuch shit do Yeah? In the tiny
house really he saved that same housethat block or someone. He's like,

(49:51):
hey, that's what your park.Don't worry about that. So you're from
Mobile, Alabama and you've made Minnesotayour home. Yes, Uh, it
makes me wonder sometimes you know whyI'm from Minnesota? Well, the time,
I love it here, I understand, and I'm married to somebody here

(50:14):
that's from here. Yeah, soI know I'm never gonna do no,
you can't, they'll let you outhere. Yeah. Well I was a
kid. I just humidity in theheat down there. It's like I take
five four five showers today still hitmy bunds. Well, get you ass
that was when you were a teenageyou know. But I'm just said,

(50:37):
but that's like I go back nowI still can't stand. And it's like
I go home and I played golfwith that fourteen holes. I said,
I'm done. I can't So I'mmuch mother been cold. Whether the bid
a little bit, yeah, Imean in August we get a little bit
of mobile, Yeah, we geta lot. Uh. So I just

(50:59):
saw the Uh they had a storyabout the best sports movies of all time.
Now I just saw this. Itwas a really good movie. The
movie Air. That's all about MichaelJordan and how they how Nike got that
big shoe deal and everything. It'sa fantastic movie. Are you a big
movie guy? Yeah? Okay.Do you like sports movies? Yes?

(51:21):
Okay. Here are the top fivesports movies according to Variety in this story.
Number five was The Hustler, whichis more about pool. Yes,
I guess they're calling that a sportfield of dreams. Of course, that's
a heath cry. Hey dad,you want to have a catch? Well?
Yeah, money Ball, which isa fantastic movie, but they show

(51:43):
it way too often on TNT.But it's a great movie. Raging Bull
came in at number two in thenumber one movie in Sports Movie nineteen seventy
six. Rocky the Original. Ohyeah, okay, I can believe that.
Are you big? Rocky seventeen thatwas the first one. Whom Yeah,
that was the first. Yeah.Yeah, it's like he and Jason

(52:06):
Bore, they just keep fighting people. They able to stopped at four would
be good. Like then I gettwenty seventh the Rocks like this box there.
So we got the draft coming uphere. We got always Bikings fans
hanging out here with Miller like young, Yes, we're just tucking. It's
dude, dumbass is sitting in thebar. Oh yeah, I'll pay for

(52:29):
this. So with the draft,are did you pay attention to the draft
nowadays? I mean you're not sittingthere watching combined video or anything that would
guess, man, hold the sub. We always watched the draft. We
always trying to pick who the bikersgot pick and he's always beat me.
So last time we had the draftpart it was like whether you drafted uh

(52:51):
Preston Christian Pondery. Yeah, wemoved on to yeah, and I remember
telling okay you representing. He waslike seventh, Okay, Well get the
hell out right now. That's thelast time I was there. Do you
feel like the Vikings made move upagain in this draft to go get a
quarterback or where do you think thatthey should get some help? I mean,

(53:13):
if you're looking at I mean thepeople keep talking about quarterback moving up.
There's some people believe it's gonna bea wide receivers. Some people think,
you know, with the defense thatwe had last year, maybe it
should be a DT or maybe acorner back. We can't draft another quarterback.
We've drafted quarterbacks for the last eightyears. Were like Matt Millen for
the Lions. He'd draft the receiversevery year. Think yeah, there's some

(53:37):
little different though. We don't needanother cointerback. Uh. Talk about the
Wilves in this organization, because you'vebeen involved with Minnesota Vikings for a long
time, you've seen a lot ofownership groups. The Wilves and how they
treat their Vikings legends, how theymake sure that you guys are all involved

(53:58):
in a part of the organza.They are as close to like Max Quinner,
who the original owner of taking careof everybody that was a part of
its organization. They do a fantasticjob of making sure that people are taking
care of it. You get tobe a part of the whole organization.
There they are I think the numberone who that's Velona right now that they

(54:24):
are probably one or two. Yeah. Yeah, it's a top nine organization.
And I'm not just saying that becauseit worked with but no, I
mean they give me a couple oflecture here sweatshirts that we're looking for,
then we're really gonna glow about it. And speaking of getting gear. Dennis

(54:45):
Ryan retiring after fifty years with theMinnesota Vikings. Dennis Ryan is one of
the great characters of all time inthis organization and he's he's calling it quits.
He's been there since nineteen seventy five. Yeah he was, Yeah,
he was are like two years beforeI got it. Man, I'm used
to pay him and this other guywas at trainer. We give him twenty

(55:07):
five dollars. Who could get offthe field, get the kicking teeth and
get back to the side on thefastest. And I'm not always had a
stock clocking tap him sometime in thefield. Was mudded Ice and you send
me the slide across all ways theother side of the field and that of
the road. That's how long I'veknown Dennis. He is one of the
premier people ever in your lifetime.If you know him, you've known one

(55:30):
of the people that's one of thegreatest people you could ever meet and being
part of your lifetime. He issuch a good man. Absolutely, And
it made me think about this,and this is a weird angle I'm gonna
go with, but that's what Ido. I was thinking about Dennis Ryan
and how many years that I've knownhim, and how many years uh,
you know, friends like yourself haveknown him. And I started thinking about

(55:52):
you ever have those dreams where you'regonna get into a game and h but
you can't find a cleat or youcan't find your pads? Do you have
those dreams? Because I'm guessing ifI wonder if Dennis Ryan has dreams about
being able to be out on thefield but can't find a damn shoe.
There's never been a time in asituation that Dennis does not know what the

(56:14):
hell all do I'm telling him we'replaying in games. It's like as Mudd,
as he said, you gotta putthe seven inch clicks. It's like
he got him on your shoes.It's like, well, you get those
shoes onbody took him out of yourlock. I bottom with me. He
was so far ahead of everybody andwhat needed to be done. He had

(56:34):
shit on everybody everything. Yeah,he knew everything that could happen. All
right, Ricky Young is with ushere, and I couldn't be happier with
Miller Lite in the Minnesota Vikings.I'll give you first, I'll ask the
question, and I'll give you asecond to think about it. But you've
got a lot of memories of playingin the NFL, and certainly playing here
with the Minnesota Vikings and being apart of the Minnesota and this whole situation.

(56:58):
Your favorite memory, if there's somethingthat like really sticks into your head
where you're like, wow, thatis one moment that if we're sitting around
and we're having a beer, acouple of Miller Lights and you're hanging out
with the guys and uh and you'rebringing it up and it's full of laps,
or if it's just some some momentwhere you're like, wow, that
is my Minnesota Viking experience. Igotta say probably was a nineteen eighty two

(57:23):
of the Strike showing you know we'replaying Atlanta Facons. Yeah, And when
we used to go to the trainingcamp in man Candoe, we practice we
had two plays and if you youhave to run it and the defense do
what we're doing. But if youdidn't score a touchdown, you had to
run a lapper on the field.And the first day of Trinity Hip,

(57:45):
that's what we did. We linedup and we tackle and we hit each
other and it was fun. Andwe were playing the Falcons and we run
this plate. Well, they tellthe defense what we're gonna run, and
I'm like, and Jared Burns calledsome damn plague over there, some pass
like and I just like, okay, that said. So I walk up
the field. I remember, Buzz, what's going on? What do you

(58:08):
think? We practice this plays?What the deefenst know what we're doing.
And now we're in a game andwe're not gonna do this play right now?
Was called thirty four toss and Iwere blocking back for Teddy Brown and
were playing a he goes well,I remember Buzz said get your ass back
on the field, and he calledhe called told birds called and he's going

(58:30):
to touchdown. I remember blocking this. One guy's like, how many people
want to play call that day?Blocking instead of running the ball. It's
like this, how many people?It's like he says, well, this
is some I guarantee this. Damnplayers gotta work. He was so pissed
off because you wouldn't call the playbirdsslike we ran them twice and you didn't

(58:52):
cause to him. And that wasone of my favorite players of all time.
When we scored a touchdown, thebuses that what do we doing?
You better make sure work. That'sawesome, Ricky, thank you so much,
ladies and gentlemen. Ricky Young numberthirty four for your Minnesota Vikings.
I appreciate it. Man. There'sa lot of fun, buddy. I
hope you had a good time too. Coach Burden's stories are always a good

(59:15):
time. Ladies and gentlemen. Chumlay'swelcome. Thank you so much for coming
out with Miller Lite, the MinnesotaVikings K one O two, KFA and
and the Viking's Radio network. I'myour host, must thank you for coming
out and hanging out with us forour pre draft party. We're gonna be
giving away draft party tickets. Ofcourse, the NFL Draft coming up on

(59:37):
Thursday of next week, and youget a chance to go and hang out
at us Bank Stadium and sit thereand either cheer or boo or well you'll
booloo commissioner and then your cheer orboo whatever the pick is at number twenty
three, or if they end upactually moving out of it. But we'll
get a lot of that draft stuffcoming up here in a bit. More
important is our special guest, Hallof Famer NFL Hall of Famer, Paul

(01:00:02):
Krause, number twenty two. Ladiesand gentlemen, Thank you, thank you
for being here. How are you, buddy, pardon how are you,
buddy? I'm doing good. Yeah, life is good. Life is good.
Life is good. And uh,you know, I just do what
I want to do. Oh thatsounds amazing, Oh god it is.
I can't do the same thing,but my wife won't let me. Well

(01:00:27):
that's your problem. Always there fora guy, always there for a guy.
You know. Last time you andI were doing a show, we
were talking about this. We dida show together with Miller Ltte. And
afterwards you were showing me not onlyyour sweet property that you have where it's
like literally has an old gas station, but it's still a working gas station,
is it not? No, itdoesn't work. Oh, there does

(01:00:51):
a guy that owns it. Butyou still have that property, right,
and now I have that property okayyeah? Yeah, and then we have
multiple properties. Yes, yes,well you've done well for yourself out of
that. I try. Now.You did also show me something that I
thought it was super super cool.It was a nineteen forty nine I miss

(01:01:13):
the making model of it, nineteennine Hall of Fame basically just a sweet
sweet ride. Well, um,I did something that I knew that nobody
else did. Yeah. Um,I bought a old forty nine Ford okay,

(01:01:34):
convertible. Yeah, and then wecompletely remodeled it. It won the
World of Wheels about six years ago. Sweet. And what its different about
that is I have a hundred andfifty authentic Hall of Fame names autographs on

(01:01:54):
it. Oh wow, like inthe paint job, in the paint job,
yeah, and uh, the theback of the rear end, it's
a hot end. You know,it's got flames. The car has flames
all over. Yeah. And soum it's a beautiful car. Yeah,

(01:02:19):
it's a beautiful car. Yeah,and actually before I did the car,
I did a I'm a biker okay, and and uh I did uh we
built this uh motorcycle, uh handmade. The only thing that uh was a
handmade was the engine okay, Uhand uh the shifting gears. Sure everything

(01:02:46):
else was made right in my shop. Really. Yeah, did you have
a big role in actually like imyou bend in metal? Not me okay,
but but but uh uh that Uhthat car and the bike are two

(01:03:07):
uh things that are in this worldand nobody can do that work anymore.
Oh wow, I've got Jimmy Brown'sname, And I mean all kinds of
I was gonna I got. Igot one hundred and fifty of them,
So I got some pretty good name. Who's who's the one that you you

(01:03:28):
covered the most? Which? Whatwhat signature on that? On that sweet
ride? Do you actually just go? Wow? I can't believe I didn't
have that. Jimmy Brown. JimmyBrown, Yeah, yeah, and I
we were at the Hall of Famelast year and Jimmy came up and UH
said, Paul, He says,is my name still on there? I

(01:03:50):
says, it's still I didn't buffit out, It's not buffed out or
anything. Boy and uh and wegot talking and I and I said,
you know, to a lot ofpeople there, I said, this man,
Jimmy Brown, yeah, is thebest running court uh running running back

(01:04:12):
ever. Yeah. Absolutely. AndI told Jimmy at that at that time,
and he probably knew it. I'vegot a picture about you, big
sure in my in my shop anduh and I told Jimmy, I says,
you know, Jimmy, I says, you know, this is uh

(01:04:34):
between you and me and the restof the people here, right, yes
of course, yeah, yeah,yeah, nobody saying nothing. He was
running for a touchdown. Yes,I was dumb enough to try to tackle
him, and I got a Igot a hold of him high ye And

(01:04:54):
then this picture we count six moreor vikings trying to tackle jeez. He
went eleven yards with uh uh sevenseven or eight guys on his back and

(01:05:15):
still scored. Oh my goodness.And you got the picture of him.
I got the picture of it.I'm witness. What is that like with
the Hall of Fame? I mean, one you get the bust and did
you were you impressed when they actuallyfinished your bus? Like did you go,
wow, that really looks like mebecause sometimes you get those you're like,
I'm still in the hall. Uhyes, and no, yeah,

(01:05:38):
I mean you get in the Hallof Fame and get your bus there.
Uh that's like finding goal. Absolutely, who are you next to you in
the in the hall? Oh Idon't know, Okay, I don't Yeah,
I don't know something there. Ithink they go alphabetic, okay right
now, yeah, okay, yeah, and uh, you know, it's

(01:06:02):
it's something that you know, notmany people get. No, no,
no, no, not at andso uh you know, it's great being
in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, uh I have I have my Hall
of Fame. Uh ring on thereyet a little ring a little Uh it's

(01:06:27):
worth somebody said that there were thirtyfive to forty thousand, oh che and
if you want to see it,yeah, you can't take it off,
but uh it's right here. That'sawesome. That's awesome. Chumbley's gonna have
a chance to do that when we'redone here. Uh, the Hall of
Fame stories, you guys must shareit, you know, like you said,
getting back and talking to Jim Brownand and anytime that you go back

(01:06:48):
to Cannon or you have an eventthat goes on because I know there's multiple
events throughout the year wearing the jacketand the whole works, but uh,
do you have any one story thatyou're like, oh man, this this
this night got a little on thesilly side. Okay, Well, you
know there's Um, I'm not I'mnot saying anything bad here, right right,

(01:07:12):
all right, But there's only afew white yeah. Uh, defensive
backs in the in the hall inthe hall. Yeah, and uh all
of all of the defensive backs thataren't white. Yeah, they give me

(01:07:33):
hell. They'll say I've been chasingyou for years, and I says,
but you can't catch me. Catchme, cannot catch me. We're gonna
talk a little bit about but grantof course, we'll talk a little bit
about the draft here, but justsome other stuff. Did I catch this

(01:07:55):
right? Did you get a cornermarket on mini donuts? Yeah? Yeah
at one time? How did thatcome about? At one time? You
know, I'm always a guy thatwants to make money, you know,
and I must not be because Igot in radio. Yeah that's your fault.

(01:08:16):
Um. You know, I andI live in Lakeville, and I've
built about four hundred houses in Lakeville. Wow. And then I built a
lot of commercial buildings. Sure,and uh, you know, I've always
had my fingers in it. Yeah. Well, I I don't even really

(01:08:40):
know how it happened, but butsomebody said, I can get you the
the all of the many Donuts.I had the whole franchise of many Donuts
for the not the State Fair,No, for the stadium stadium really no,

(01:09:06):
not the not the football stadium,but Downstown Stadium. Oh, target
Field, target Field. Yeah,yeah, I had that for nine ten
years. Jeez, there's golden themthere donuts in there. It was pretty
good. Yeah, you know,and all my bodies would come up and

(01:09:28):
say, ah, you're pushing donutsand stuff like that. Yeah, I'm
pushing them right down there. Throwgood for you. Man. Now,
there's so many different numbers that arejust astounding that follow your career, not
only the a time pro bowler,but also you're in the fifty Greatest Vikings.
Of course, you're in the Ringof Honor. Of course, in

(01:09:50):
high school in a basketball game,you were going after Wilt Chamberlain, where
you scored seventy eight in a basketballgame. No, he's had in ormation.
Wrong, that's wrong. Okay,how many was it was fifty eight
oh fifty eight typo on Wikipedia onthat one. Uh yeah, okay,
I would have still gone with theseventy eight. And then you go to

(01:10:13):
the University of bioh of course.Ye. And uh you know we right
now have another guy from the Universityof Bio. We don't want to talk
about Chad Greenway. He's kind ofa jackass. Who is it Greenway?
I love that guy, Chad Greenway. Oh yeah, yeah, also a
Hawkeye. But I don't know ChadT. J. Hawkinson. I don't
know. I don't know him either. So he's our new tight end as
of like mid season last year.He better keep hanging onto that ball.

(01:10:38):
He's gone, all right, he'sgone. But the most impressive number,
for sure is eighty one eighty oneinterception career and interceptions NFL record eighty one.
My gudness, you had twelve inyour first season, right in your
rookie seasons, right, you hadtwelve. So he got drafted. You

(01:11:00):
go to Washington and you get twelvein your first season, eighty one and
you actually beat another guy who oncewent to Iowa. That's right, Yes,
that's right. Yes, he doesn'tknow him. That the record anymore.
No, tunnels had he had seventynine, Yeah, and then he
was seventy nine and in nineteen seventynine, I believe it was you were

(01:11:21):
taking on the rams. Uh,Goudie and Hankstram were on the call.
Yeah, and right before the halfyou get number eighty. That had to
feel unbelievably amazing. Well, itdid. What they say about me,
I had never heard. Oh,they know. They were just talking about
the record and of course that theyhad the graphics from the guy who had

(01:11:44):
it before, and that that itwas absolutely record breaking and it was super
super cool. They were, theyreally were glowing all about that. Um,
you had forty five different quarterbacks thatyou interceptedy, Wow, I didn't
know there are that many good onesin the league. And maybe that's why
I got all the all the interceptions. Is there is there an interception or

(01:12:09):
maybe like a game where there aremultiple interceptions that really stands out and you're
back in your career now, Idon't I don't like to talk about that
because you know, one's as goodas the others, right, Yeah,
you know, but I will tellthe story. Yeah. Uh, I
knew Bud Grant before I got here, Okay, And Jerry Burns. Uh,

(01:12:33):
Jerry Burns coach me at Iowa.Okay, yes, so Burns and
Bud are close friends, yes,and uh so I'm I'm playing uh in
uh Washington, and I'm having somegood years and everything. And in the

(01:12:53):
defensive backfield, coach and I didn'tget along. And for some reason,
I think I get along with everybody. Yeah, and um he was always
you know, picking at me forgetting in more interception since the tough and
one day I said, what thecrap, what do you want? Right?

(01:13:15):
But two three a game? Everygame, you know. But anyway,
Bud and Burns got on the phoneand talked to Washington and I'm a
new Viking defensive back and uh sowe're all better for its fans and of

(01:13:44):
course the story career you had herewith the FA But when I got here,
I had already known Bud. Firstweek, he didn't talk to me.
You know what kind of a guyBud is, Oh yeah, absolutely
yeah, and uh he only speakswhen you need. And so we were
walking across the field, or abouta week after I joined the team,

(01:14:11):
and I was walking across the fieldby myself, be Bud walked up to
me and he said, Paul,let's go in together. Let's walk in
together. So I said, Isays okay, and he says, how's
it going. I says, uh, this team's going to go go somewhere.

(01:14:32):
And he says, I don't knowanything. I can't teach you anything
about uh free safety. Yeah,he actually said that to me. He
says, I can't tell you morethan you know. And uh so he
says, all I want you todo is one thing. He said,

(01:14:58):
don't get big D. That's whathe's told me. That's good coaching.
And I played that game all mycareer. Don't get beat D. You
know you mentioned that coach Burns inthere as well, and I know that
he was the one that introduced youinto the Hall of Fame right before you

(01:15:21):
got inducted. And uh, thathadn't have been kind of interesting? Were
you nervous at all? Because weall know the colorful language at times that
coach Burns would have. And Iactually read the transcript to it just because
I wanted to see if they hadto beap anything. No, no,
no, But did that make youI mean that that had been a proud

(01:15:44):
moment. Well, I'll tell youwhat Burns was a great court or a
great coach. Yeah, uh youknow, he he didn't play the game.
He played as a freshman sophomore andthat and just wasn't good enough to
play for Michigan and and uh Burnsey. All Burns would say is hit I

(01:16:10):
can do that, or you know, just and I was. I was
an All American baseball player, Iknow at Iowa, and I says,
you know, I might just notgo football. I might go baseball.

(01:16:30):
Yeah you better not. But he'she was. He's just he was a
great friend. Uh you know.He died when he was well ninety three
or four. Bud died when hewas nine. What a pair of guys.

(01:16:54):
Yeah, I mean they really stucktogether. And I'll tell you that's
why we had good football teams.I would guess it's it has to be
more meaningful the relationship. Obviously afteryou, guys, after you had played
four of those coaches versus I meanobviously when you're sharing the locker rooms and

(01:17:15):
you and you're sharing the stories andyou know all the where all the skeletons
are during the games and practices andeverything else. But afterwards, that has
to be a more meaningful relationship.Well, yeah, yes, uh it
really does. I mean playing forboth of them, Uh was a tremendous,

(01:17:36):
tremendous uh now, I I justlove it. Yeah, you know,
Bud, uh Bud was a guythat uh burns was the guy that
they always The only thing he coulddo is swear, you know, That's

(01:17:56):
all I think he's ever learned.But Bud never war, and Bud Bud
would uh Bud would do some goodthings and some bad things though. And
uh, I tell you a storyone. Uh we had a guy uh
there with the vikings that you know, you couldn't you couldn't stay out late,

(01:18:19):
oh char you know, or budHead curfew, bud Head curfews and
everything like that. And uh,uh Bud caught a guy. Bud caught
a guy out late. Yeah,and uh was this in season or is

(01:18:40):
this training camp? Training camp?Okay x x X. You know.
Then the next morning, Budd says, John, come on up here.
So John came up there and hesays, you were caught outside are out
of your dorm room last night,after hours, after hours, and uh

(01:19:08):
he says, you are now aNew York Giant. Just like moved him
like that, he moved him thatnight. Everybody made right there on that
one. Um. You know,you guys travel back then much different than

(01:19:28):
they travel now. I mean,you know the teams now they get their
chartered planes, and they get theirown rows and the whole works, and
they stay in a five star hotels. And you're probably wondering, why didn't
I build one of those so theycould stay in it? But what was
it? What were they like?The road stories that you can remember where
I can't tell you. Oh really, I can't tell you. I know,

(01:19:53):
statute of limitations there. You know, we had great football players.
I'll tell you another little story.But uh uh you know Bud had fulls
both fests, run your neck ifhe wanted to chip, yeah, yep.

(01:20:15):
And uh but Bud could also havefun. Okay, and uh you
know Budd and I were championship UHCball players. Yeah, we we won
more money than we well I wasgonna championship. I was gonna say we
won more money than we got outof the Super Bowls, But I I'm

(01:20:38):
gonna change that. What caught youinto? How did you guys find that
you shared this love of the botchThat was a game that everybody played really
all over fourteen football fields. Reallyyeah, and and uh, Budd and

(01:21:00):
I won every champion. They getpretty heated at those things. Well,
well, if if you got thegreens going out, not coming in,
you know, the greens going goingand I love that, um with Bud
obviously, you know, passing away. And then everybody should know this that
there is a free public celebration ofGrant's life that is gonna be coming up

(01:21:25):
at US Bank Stadium on Sunday,May twenty first. It's gonna be at
noon. You can find out moreat vikings dot com. On that.
Um, let me tell you thisstory. Yes, but well a bunch
of us, about twelve of us, would hunt, yeah with Bud.
Okay, well, you know,peasant hunting, duck hunting, goose hunting,

(01:21:48):
whatever whatever we can do, right, you know, if it's got
feathers, we're going out. Yeah, we're going after all. And um,
I lined up this uh peasant huntdown in Iowa because I you know,
went to Iowa. Sure, soevery everybody in Iowa at the time
was proud of their pheasants. Sure, And so we take about fifteen guys

(01:22:14):
there, twelve guys there something,And Bud said guys, I gotta go
back and do my my TV show, and I'm leaving at twelve o'clock.
He says, you guys got tohave all your birds in the back bed
of the truck. Right, Well, he said, what the craps he

(01:22:36):
doing now? So we we allgot got together at noon and Bud was
walking around the back of the truckfingering them like this to see what one
wasn't shot up or not. Hetakes the one that wasn't shot up and
threw it in his throw it inhis truck. Buck out too much.

(01:23:00):
I hope that's not mine. Andeverybody just look at him like, you're
welcome. Coach. Yeah, he'sthe coach. He's the coaches. Let's
make that happened. You ever thinkabout this, I mean, obviously you've
done extremely well away from the field, but with your numbers and how you
played and storied NFL career, howmuch money you'd be able to be taken

(01:23:24):
if it was nowadays? I getsick. You see those dollar amounts roll
in get I get sick. AndI was I was drafted in the second
round, right number eight or eighteenthpick, right something like that. I
don't know. Yeah, and Uh, I already knew that Washington picked me

(01:23:47):
because they wanted me to play baseballfootball. Oh you're to really played both?
Yeah? Yeah, really they saidI could try They said I could
try out for baseball. Yeah,and I just didn't do that. But
anyway, uh, the uh,the guys that were playing in everything.

(01:24:15):
Uh oh, I would say thatthe average guy in nineteen sixty four made
fifteen thousand the starters. Yeah,chief, that's why you got to work
in the off season. And Iand I and I'm, uh, I
know what they want, so I'mI'm putting the brakes on them a little

(01:24:36):
bit. Yeah. And I alsosaid I can go play baseball, right
so yeah, so I get geta little bit more than that. You're
playing your own agent. Yeah,uh, so I could get a little
more in that, and personally Idid very well. Yeah. And uh

(01:24:58):
bet uh the guy said, areplaying now if you're on the if you're
on the just the second team thatyou're not playing, you just practice,
right You're getting over one hundred thousandright now. Yeah. Oh yeah,
you're just getting on the practice too. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, And

(01:25:18):
uh but you know I did,I did rather well. Yeah, so
I had assumed. So with thatHall of Fame career that you had there,
if you were going to play generalmanager or Kevin O'Connell draft coming up
next Thursday, first and foremost,will you actually watch it at the primetime

(01:25:40):
first round NFL Draft? Probably not, But if you were, what would
you think or what do you believethe Vikings should do as far as need
if they stay at that twenty thirdpick in the first round, well,
they should get the best football playeravailable. And and you know what,

(01:26:04):
I played sixteen years and nobody hasasked how I got an interception? Right,
No one asked me how I learnedto play to get the interceptions.
No one asked me to coach orhelp coach or whatever. And these guys

(01:26:30):
that are coaching before the Viking coachof now, yes, that's seven O'Connell.
Ye. You know the other guythat was before him, Oh,
Mike Zimmert, Holy right, helearned he was gonna put a brand new

(01:26:54):
defensive. Uh. He was theguru, Yeah he was. And he
lost so many games. He lostso many games to the deep ball.
Yeah, not to not to shortball. And you can't give up yeah,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, long balls

(01:27:15):
and stay in stay in the race, right, because what would Bud say,
don't get don't get deep? Youknow. And and no, not
one of these coaches has ever askedme how I did it? Yeah?
Can I ask And I'm not goingto tell him? Well, no,

(01:27:36):
can I ask you how? What? What was? What was it that
you believe gave you that ability tobe able to track the ball, to
be able to get the ball,to be able to I mean catch the
ball and jump for the ball andreturn what six touchdowns? Yeah? I
mean what what was what was thekey or keys to your abilities? I

(01:27:58):
played center field olden baseball. Sure, yeah, that's tracking the ball.
That's tracking the ball. And uhposition with basketball. Uh oh yeah.
Yeah. If I can't jump,I can't dump the ball, right.
Yeah. And it takes somebody thatcan do that. And it's all God

(01:28:26):
give Yeah, it's God given.Yeah, because you know I can jump
just as high as you know.I used to throw it down by my
elbow. Yeah, when you're goingup over the room. Yeah. And
uh, if it takes somebody witha God given talent, right and God

(01:28:47):
given abilities to do it, there'salso got to be a mental part of
that it's just like you're not goingto get beat. You know you're gonna
get meat. Don't get meat meat. And I can't remember if it was

(01:29:08):
my man. I can't remember gettingbeat, yeah, but I'm sure I
did, probably, but I don'tremember. Yeah,