The 1968 season was the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

' eighth in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. In their second year under head coach

Bud Grant Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. (May 20, 1927 – March 11, 2023) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). Grant was head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Viki ...

, the Vikings won the NFL Central division title with an 8–6 record, and qualified for the postseason for the first time in franchise history. This was the first of four consecutive division titles for the Vikings. The Vikings' first trip to the playoffs saw them suffer a 24–14 loss in the Western Conference Championship Game to the eventual NFL champion and

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

runner-up

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from 1953 to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It w ...

at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. In the Playoff Bowl two weeks later, they again lost to the Dallas Cowboys 17–13.

Offseason

1968 draft

Notes

Roster

Preseason

Regular season

Schedule

*Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 11: at Baltimore Colts

This was the last occasion the Colts hosted the Vikings in the regular season until

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, seventeen years after they had relocated to Indianapolis. The intervening gap of 31 seasons constitutes the second-longest gap without one team visiting another in NFL history.

Standings

Playoffs

Conference Playoff: at Baltimore Colts

Four weeks after their last regular-season visit to the Colts for 32 years, the Vikings' first ever playoff appearance saw them return to play the Colts in their only postseason meeting.

Statistics

Team leaders

League rankings

Notes

References

External links

1968 Minnesota Vikings
at Pro-Football-Reference.com {{1968 NFL season by team Minnesota Vikings seasons

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...