A Piece of Vikings History

Has it really been almost two months since I posted anything on the front page? Wow. Um...sorry about that. Things have been crazy down here in Texas for our family, and this off-season has been one of the slowest ever in Vikings history, so it's been a perfect storm of no content from me. But, let's be honest, it's probably a good thing Vikings players haven't been in the news for once. It's been kind of nice to not have anything to write about.

In any case, the reason I've come out of hibernation is to share a bit of Vikings memorabilia with you all. Those of you that have been following the blog for a while may remember that two years ago I received bits and pieces of the Metrodome for Father's Day. My plan with the stadium seats was to have my Father craft a chair for me, and this past Spring it was finally finished! It took him awhile, but I think the end result is pretty cool looking.

We had several ideas, including using the metal frame off of a folding chair, but ultimately we went with a painted wood design. Using wood gave my Dad much more freedom in figuring out how to get the chair to fold up. It took a few tries to design something that would a)fold up and b) not collapse when folded down. As you can see in the picture below, there are two stages of "folding up". There are four screws that hold the chair together. Removing the first two allows the set to fold up most of the way, and removing the final two screws allows it to fold up the rest of the way for slightly slimmer storage.

I'm sure some of you noticed the seat number I randomly received. #29 is of course Xavier Rhodes' number, but for me I remember a certain other Vikings player who wore #29 when my fandom was really getting going: Chester Taylor. But here's a list of all the players who have worn number 29 through all of Vikings history (from this awesome source):

Karl Kassulke 1963-72

Randy Poltl 1974

Phil Wise 1977-79

John Swain 1981-84

Jamie Fitzgerald 1987

Darrell Fullington 1988-90

Charles Evans 1993-98

Chris Rogers 1999

Wasswa Serwanga 2000-01

Brian Williams 2002-05

Chester Taylor 2006-07

And lastly, the burning question I bet many of you have is, "how comfortable is it?" Well, as someone who sat in the bleachers in the old Metrodome I can assure you that sitting in this chair is an authentic experience of comfort. And bonus, it's not too late to craft one of your own! I was shocked to learn that old Metrodome seats appear to still be for sale.

So, thanks for the awesome Metrodome Chair Dad! I'll be able to break it out for Vikings games this season and pretend I'm back in the Metrodome! Well...for as long as my butt can hold out. Then it's back in my recliner!