Bud Grant, who led Vikings to 4 Super Bowls in HOF career, dies

Bud Grant, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowl appearances, has died at the age of 95, the Vikings announced Saturday.

In 28 seasons as a head coach in Canada and with the Vikings, Grant's teams reached the playoffs 20 times, played in 10 championship games and won four titles. However, none of those titles came in the NFL, as he became the first coach to lose four Super Bowls.

Grant was the first person to be inducted into both the CFL Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He had a career regular-season record of 158-96-5 in the NFL and 102-56-2 in the CFL and went a combined 26-20-1 in the postseason between the two leagues.

We are absolutely devastated to announce legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach and Hall of Famer Bud Grant has passed away this morning at age 95. We, like all Vikings and NFL fans, are shocked and saddened by this terrible news. pic.twitter.com/z2NNlNAY44

Born Harry Peter Grant Jr., «Bud» joined the Navy during World War II after graduating from high school in Superior, Wisconsin. At Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, Grant played on a football team coached by Paul Brown, who would become one of the NFL's greatest coaches.

Grant later attended Minnesota, where he won nine letters in three sports (football, basketball, baseball) before being drafted by the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers and NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. He chose basketball at first and was a member of the Lakers' 1949-50 championship team.

After two NBA seasons, during which he averaged 2.6 points per game, Grant changed sports and played both sides of the ball for two seasons with the Eagles. He caught 56 passes for 997 yards and seven touchdowns in 1952 then left to play for the CFL's