Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame center dies at 81

The Minnesota Vikings on Saturday shared that Mick Tingelhoff, a Hall of Fame center that started 240 consecutive games for the Vikings, died on Saturday.

Tingelhoff was 81 years old. The cause of death was not disclosed.

“Mick Tingelhoff was the anchor of the great Vikings teams during an amazing era that included four Super Bowls,” the Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, said in a statement. “A humble but strong leader, he defined toughness. Mick’s legacy will live on as a Hall of Famer, on the field and off the field. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Tingelhoff, a native of Lexington, Nebraska, played college football at the University of Nebraska for four years. While at Nebraska, however, he did not earn the starting center job until his senior season in 1961. He was a co-captain of the 1961 team that had one of the program’s greatest offensive performances of the decade, and Tingelhoff played in the All-American Bowl before ultimately going undrafted in 1962.

While he was not selected in the 1962 NFL Draft, Tingelhoff signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Minnesota Vikings, and he became Minnesota’s starting center as early as his rookie season. He would ultimately earn the starting job before the 1962 season, and he held the spot until his retirement in 1978.

Along Tingelhoff’s 17 seasons as the Vikings’ starting center, he helped the Vikings win the NFL Championship in 1969, the pre-Super Bowl era, and that season was named the NFL’s top offensive lineman of the year. Over the course of his career, Tingelhoff was named to six Pro Bowls, and was a five-time first-team All-Pro, as well as two-time second-team All-Pro. He was one of 11 players to have played in all four Vikings Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s.

At the time of Tingelhoff’s retirement in 1978, he had started in the second-most consecutive games in NFL history, trailing only his teammate Jim Marshall.

Tingelhoff in 2001 was inducted to the Vikings Ring of Honor, and his uniform number — 53 — was retired by the franchise. A member of the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame, Tingelhoff was also elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.