Minnesota Vikings By The Numbers: #36

In the history of the Minnesota Vikings, the number 36 has not generated a whole lot of excitement. As we’ve said before, when you have 99 numbers to go through, there are going to be some “duds,” and this number appears to be one of them.

The earliest prominent #36 in Vikings’ history was linebacker John Kirby, who played for the team from 1964 to 1969. According to Pro Football Reference, Kirby has the highest Approximate Value of any player to wear the number 36 in team history, but they don’t have any actual statistics for him or anything like that. He was the primary starter at right outside linebacker for the team from 1966 to 1968. Since he was significantly before my time, I really can’t describe him in any more detail.

Next, we have running back Allen Rice, who played for the team for seven seasons but didn’t put up any huge numbers. Rice actually had more receiving yards in his seven seasons in Minnesota (1,066) than he did rushing yards (934). He did find the end zone a total of 19 times for the Vikings in his career before leaving the team after the 1990 season.

Last, there’s safety Robert Blanton. Blanton was mostly a special teamer in his time with the Vikings, but he was the team’s primary starter at safety across from Harrison Smith in 2014.

As far as the number 36 goes in Vikings history, those are pretty much the high water marks, folks.

Vikings that have worn the number 36:

• Jim Christopherson (1962)
• John Kirby (1964 - 1969)
• Chuck Winfrey (1971)
• Manfred Moore (1977)
• Sam Harrell (1981 -1982, 1987)
• Allen Rice (1984 - 1990)
• Ron Carpenter (1993)
• Malik Boyd (1994)
• Dovonte Edwards (2005)
• Brandon Burton (2011)
• Robert Blanton (2012 - 2015)

We will move on to the number 35 tomorrow, which would be almost as unheralded as the number 36 if it wasn’t for a recent story of a local guy done good.