The first NFL-AFL combined draft was held March 1967, at the Gotham Hotel in New York. While Vikings equipment manager Jim “Stubby” Eason manned a phone there, Vikings general manager Jim Finks had just undergone surgery to remove his gallbladder, in the Twin Cities, and so they drafted from the hospital, with the modest draft materials transported from team headquarters.
ESPN.com, using metrics from Pro Football Reference, earlier this month ranked Minnesota’s 1967 draft the best in team history.
“That draft was a big step in the right direction for us,” said Page, a member of the Vikings' "Purple People Eaters," a defensive line adept at sacking or hurrying the quarterback who played for the Vikings from 1967-78, made six Pro Bowls and was the NFL MVP in 1971.
Page played in 218 consecutive games without an absence
Long before Page’s football career came to a close, he was laying the groundwork for his future role as a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. While still playing for the Vikings, Page attended the University of Minnesota Law School, from which he received a Juris Doctor in 1978. After graduating, he worked at the Minneapolis law firm Lindquist and Vennum from 1979 to 1984 outside the football season. Page was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General in 1985, and soon thereafter promoted to Assistant Attorney General.
In 1992 Page was elected to an open seat as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American to serve on that court. He was reelected in 1998 (becoming the biggest vote-getter in Minnesota history), again in 2004, and for a final time in 2010
In the 1st round the Vikings took Jones, who went on to be a chiropractor in LA, Washington, who played for the Vikings from 1967-72 made Pro Bowls in 1969 and 1970 and then had a career with 3M in hr, and Page.
Don Schula scouted Jones and Bubba Smith at the same time, and picked Smith, leaving Jones for the Vikings.
https://www.twincities.com/2017/04/21/vikings-1967-draft-three-guys-picked-a-great-class-out-of-a-hospital-room/
Lost Muscle Cars
By Wes Eisenschenk
