E. William Boyer was an American businessman who was a founder of 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 ...

Bill Boyer Ford

Boyer was an investor in McDonald Gilfillan Motor Company, a

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

automobile dealership founded in 1927. In 1938, the company became a

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

franchise holder. In 1952 he became the sole owner of the dealership and renamed it Bill Boyer Ford. In 1958, Boyer began selling Ford heavy commercial trucks.

Minnesota Vikings

In 1959, Boyer,

Max Winter Max Winter (June 29, 1903 – July 26, 1996) was a Minneapolis businessman and sport executive who helped found the Minnesota Vikings. Biography Winter was born in Ostrava, Austria-Hungary (modern day Czech Republic, Czechia). He emigrated wi ...

, and H. P. Skoglund were awarded the Minneapolis-St. Paul franchise in the new

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

. In an effort to fight back against the new league,

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

owner

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear", was an American professional football end, coach, and executive. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), ...

proposed adding

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

to the NFL. However, the ownership group for the proposed Houston franchise backed out after they were unable to find a suitable stadium, which led Boyer's group to withdraw from the AFL and apply for an NFL franchise. On January 28, 1960, Minneapolis was awarded an expansion franchise that would begin playing in 1961. Boyer served as president of the Minnesota Vikings from 1960 to 1965, and a vice president until his death. He died at the age of 67 on February 19, 1973, at Palm Springs, California. Boyer helped start the National Football League's Punt, Pass, and Kick competition by presenting the idea, which was conceived by

National Football League Properties NFL Properties is the merchandising and licensing arm of the National Football League (NFL). The subsidiary of the league was founded in 1963 to maintain control of the brands of the league and its franchises and to license and negotiate with vendor ...

employee Carl Schroeder, to the league and the Ford Motor Company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyer, Bill 1973 deaths American automobile salespeople Businesspeople from Minneapolis Minnesota Vikings owners