Minnesota Vikings Statement on Sid Hartman

[Viktor]

Grant recalled meeting Hartman while playing for the Great Lakes Naval Academy during World War II.


"We played a basketball game up here against Minnesota, and Sid came in and introduced himself to me in the locker room and said, 'Where are you going to school when your service is over?' I said, 'Sid, we've got a war to win first,' " Grant said. "But that's the way Sid thought. … He had his ear to the ground his whole life."


Following the Vikings loss to the Falcons at U.S. Bank Stadium, Head Coach Mike Zimmer reflected on his relationship with Hartman:


"Sid was a great man, a great sportswriter, great friend of us. It's a sad day," Zimmer said. "We're definitely going to miss him. I always looked forward to when he was able to come into the facility and sit down in my office and just talk about all different things, but he was a great man – a very generous, very caring, a very smart man."