https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Grant
The Armistice Day Blizzard in 1940 that destroyed the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge and cut a 1000-mile swath through the middle of the country from Kansas to Michigan, stranded Grant and two friends who were hunting at the time in his homestate of Minnesota. He survived it by huddling in a gas-station while his two friends found a farmhouse to survive it. It's listed as #2 in Minnesota's top-five weather events of the 20th Century, and they have had some monsters.
https://www.startribune.com/bud-gran...son/600224352/
When the skies finally cleared two days later, about 25 duck hunters were among the 154 people killed by the storm. Thousands of cattle also died in snowdrifts that crested 20 feet, and more than a million farm-raised turkeys perished.
My Mom was 8 in Meeker County (think Little House on the Prairie), MN, on a large farm at the time. I don't know how many feet of snow they had, but a town 25 miles NE of them had 2-1/2 feet. They had been there one year after moving North from Iowa, where my Grandfather had been taking care of his Father-in-Law's farm for 10 years and it was now time for another of his wife's siblings to take over so he could have his own farm. 50 °F (28 °C) temperature drops were common over parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Record low pressures were recorded in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota. Survivors describe the cold as so severe that it was difficult to breathe, with the air so moisture laden it was thick like syrup and that the cold seared the survivors lungs like a red-hot blade.
Bud Grant graduated from high school in 1945 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois and played on the football team coached by Paul Brown.
Bud Grant is the greatest sports personality in the hearts of Minnesotans who ever lived.
In 1967 he was asked to be the Minnesota Vikings Coach, replacing Norm Van Brocklin, going into the same Division as legendary Head Coaches George Halas (with Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus) and Vince Lombardi (with Bart Starr a host of players that made up the back-to-back-to-back NFC/Super Bowl Champs). Grant won 11 Division Titles and 4 NFC Championships. The Vikings have been looking for someone to get them back to the Super Bowl ever since he left in 1983, with their last appearance being in the '70's.
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Originally Posted by Sea Ray
