Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament: First Round Complete

My apologies for not having anything out there since the Open Thread on Friday. Was feeling a bit under the weather and. . .well, there hasn't been a whole lot of action in Minnesota Vikings country.

As you can see, the first round of our Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament has concluded, and we are ready for the second round starting on Monday. The bracket is right here as well. As always, you may click to embiggen.

In the thirty-three first round match-ups (including the play-in game), we had just a shade over 6,000 "recs" for the various candidates. . .6,016, to be exact. Here are some of the facts and figures about the first round.

Most recs - Randy Moss, 232

Fewest recs - Jeff Christy, 3

Biggest margin of victory - Moss, by 210 recs over Paul Allen

Smallest margin of victory - Robert Smith, by 14 recs over Gary Larsen

There are 27 different colleges represented in the Round of 32, with three schools getting multiple representatives into the next round. The full list of colleges represented in our Round of 32 are as follows:

-THE. . .dramatic pause. . .Ohio State University (Robert Smith, Antoine Winfield, Cris Carter, Jim Marshall)
-University of Minnesota (Bud Grant, Carl Eller)
-University of Southern California (Joey Browner, Ron Yary)
-Arizona State University (Randall McDaniel)
-Brown University (Steve Jordan)
-Fairleigh Dickinson University (Zygi Wilf)
-Harvard University (Matt Birk)
-Idaho State University (Jared Allen)
-Iowa State University (Matt Blair)
-Marshall University (Randy Moss)
-Oklahoma State University (Kevin Williams)
-San Diego State University (Robert Griffith)
-Texas A&M (Pat Williams)
-Texas A&M-Kingsville (John Randle)
-University of Georgia (Fran Tarkenton)
-University of Illinois (Scott Studwell)
-University of Iowa (Paul Krause)
-University of Miami (FL) (Chuck Foreman)
-University of Michigan (Anthony Carter)
-University of Nebraska (Mick Tingelhoff)
-University of North Dakota (Jim Kleinsasser)
-University of Notre Dame (Alan Page)
-University of Oklahoma (Adrian Peterson)
-University of Oregon (Ahmad Rashad)
-University of Pittsburgh (Chris Doleman)
-University of South Carolina (Bobby Bryant)
-Washington State University (Keith Millard)

By looking at the positions that are represented in the Round of 32, you see a lot of positions that the Vikings are traditionally strong at. Here's the breakdown:

Defensive tackle - 5 (Pat Williams, John Randle, Keith Millard, Kevin Williams, Alan Page)
Defensive end - 4 (Jared Allen, Chris Doleman, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall)
Wide receiver - 4 (Cris Carter, Randy Moss, Anthony Carter, Ahmad Rashad)
Running back - 3 (Adrian Peterson, Robert Smith, Chuck Foreman)
Safety - 3 (Robert Griffith, Paul Krause, Joey Browner)
Center - 2 (Matt Birk, Mick Tingelhoff)
Cornerback - 2 (Antoine Winfield, Bobby Bryant)
Linebacker - 2 (Matt Blair, Scott Studwell)
Tight end - 2 (Steve Jordan, Jim Kleinsasser)
Coach - 1 (Bud Grant)
Guard - 1 (Randall McDaniel)
Offensive Tackle - 1 (Ron Yary)
Owner - 1 (Zygi Wilf)
Quarterback - 1 (Fran Tarkenton)

There are eight nine (oops) Hall of Famers in our Round of 32, counting Cris Carter, who will be enshrined next month. They are Alan Page, Chris Doleman, Carl Eller, Cris Carter, Bud Grant, Randall McDaniel, John Randle, Ron Yary, and Fran Tarkenton.

So, there's the latest update on our tournament, ladies and gentlemen. I might schedule the match-ups for the Round of 32 out a bit (rather than just going with random match-ups). That schedule should come out tomorrow, and we'll then have the second round match-ups starting on Monday at 8 AM Central.