Benchwarmer Bob

I was late to the party, didnt have time for the internet for entertainment until my kids got older and were help out more around the farm and take a little off my plate. I think I found VU around 05 or 06, ( it was something to do while waiting in the middle of the night for my deployed brother to call or MSN message me from the ME) lurked for a while and then jumped in around 07 when we drafted AD.

Vikesrock wrote:
I think it was around 1995 when I first round the Bob Lertesma's Vikings Update.  I was on dial up in the military living in Darmstadt Germany.  I discovered the magazine as well, somehow that led me to here now a days through different messaging boards:

Yeppers...I had a subscription for years.  I really enjoyed reading the coverage of the draft picks and free agents each year.

Mid-90's subscriber myself. Pre-internet, VU was must have living in California. I remember hanging the player posters up in my garage that came in the different issues. I had rookie Randy Moss wearing #18 hung up. That was my favorite.

JimmyinSD wrote:
I was late to the party,  didnt have time for the internet for entertainment until my kids got older and were help out more around the farm and take a little off my plate.  I think I found VU around 05 or 06, ( it was something to do while waiting in the middle of the night for my deployed brother to call or MSN message me from the ME)  lurked for a while and then jumped in around 07 when we drafted AD.

I think the original site was Viking Underground, and then changed to Vikings Update at some point when Lurtsema bought it.  I can't remember the exact time line of that.  So I may have been getting the magazines prior to the Vikings Update message board.

One story to add, when I was a kid, my dad had a Pro Football Almanac. In the Almanac under the teams information, they had apparently published a phone number for marketing or something...Anyways, one of the most trouble I got in when I was a kid, was in 1982 during the first NFL strike, I called the number for the Minnesota Vikings and had a conversation with the whomever answered the phone about how the strike was stupid and they need to play and whatever. I don't have first hand recollection, it was a story my dad told later on and when he realized who I was on the phone with...Apparently it was a pretty pricy long distance call..

Those were the days where you couldn't get any information about the Vikings if you lived out of state. Now it is information overload and much of it crap!

hogjowlsjohnny wrote:
Those were the days where you couldn't get any information about the Vikings if you lived out of state. Now it is information overload and much of it crap!

So true.  
I moved away from Minnesota in 1976 and in the late '70s could occasionally get Duluth TV with Vikings news.  Occasionally. 
Got worse.  In '86 I moved to Colorado (obviously pre-Interweb), and forget it.
Thank heavens today I can get EXACTLY the same news and updates as all my Vikings brethren (and sistah's) around the world.
Progress is an interesting and sometimes wonderful thing

Montana Tom wrote:

So true.  
I moved away from Minnesota in 1976 and in the late '70s could occasionally get Duluth TV with Vikings news.  Occasionally. 
Got worse.  In '86 I moved to Colorado (obviously pre-Interweb), and forget it.
Thank heavens today I can get EXACTLY the same news and updates as all my Vikings brethren (and sistah's) around the world.
Progress is an interesting and sometimes wonderful thing

Yeah. I left in 1974 and moved to Nebraska. We were starved for Vikings news back then and I think that is a major reason I am here now!

Subscriber from the mid 80s (mom gave me a subscription for my birthday one year) and kept it till the early 2000s. Was a welcome treasure trove of news that you couldn't get anywhere else at the time. I miss it)))

Met a fellow Vikings Fan in law school, 1989, and he asked if I subscribed. I had no idea it existed.  He brought in a copy, I subscribed to the end.  Used to love to hate on “Dark Star” giving the ‘not so optimistic’ take on the Vikings. Before the internet, man I couldn’t wait to tear through my copy when it arrived!

Wow, the memories this brings back. I lived in California and my subscription was my lifeline to the Vikings.

I don't think it was ever called Viking Underground was it? That was a message board and a community of Viking fans that started on Sports'nYou (Dan Hildreth's site?) and broke into other various internet fan forums. 

I remember it being Viking Report before Viking Update. The first one I got had Joe Senser on the cover. But my God, if my Viking Report didn't come in the mail on Wednesdays, it would ruin my entire week. 

p.s. Yeah, I also subscribed back when it was Viking Underground before Lurts got it. I might have been subscribing still when it went from Underground to Update actually, hard to remember for sure. I think in the offseason during the summer they went every two months for a new issue?

The print publication was never called Viking Underground that I recall...Like many, I subscribed to Viking Update for years!

I believe it was Dan Hildredth who brought the Viking Underground to the internet and it was the first Viking forum I belonged to. That was probably mid to late 90's

The website may have gone from Hildredth to Mike Olson & Tom when it evolved to VikeFans. 

One of the mods can correct/chime-in if my recollection is incorrect.

Vikesrock wrote:

I think the original site was Viking Underground, and then changed to Vikings Update at some point when Lurtsema bought it.  I can't remember the exact time line of that.  So I may have been getting the magazines prior to the Vikings Update message board.

One story to add, when I was a kid, my dad had a Pro Football Almanac.  In the Almanac under the teams information, they had apparently published a phone number for marketing or something...Anyways, one of the most trouble I got in when I was a kid, was in 1982 during the first NFL strike, I called the number for the Minnesota Vikings and had a conversation with the whomever answered the phone about how the strike was stupid and they need to play and whatever.  I don't have first hand recollection, it was a story my dad told later on and when he realized who I was on the phone with...Apparently it was a pretty pricy long distance call..

Pretty sure I found the message list around 96-97.  Read that religiously searching for any Viking news out in the Northwest.  Don't remember when it transitioned to the VU site, but I was there and have been thru all the renditions, eventually landing here at vikefans.

MaroonBells wrote:
I don't think it was ever called Viking Underground was it? That was a message board and a community of Viking fans that started on Sports'nYou (Dan Hildreth's site?) and broke into other various internet fan forums. 

I remember it being Viking Report before Viking Update. The first one I got had Joe Senser on the cover. But my God, if my Viking Report didn't come in the mail on Wednesdays, it would ruin my entire week. 

No the print was always called Viking Update.  I found the forum called Viking Underground and I think it was Hildreth who ran it.  On there somewhere is where I found the way to subscribe to the magazine and I got it while I was in Germany.