MINNEAPOLIS — Millie Wall, the Minnesota Vikings superfan who went viral when the team reached the NFC Championship game in January 2018, has died, her family said Thursday. She was 102.
Wall saw it all, from four Super Bowl losses to the “Minneapolis Miracle.” She had been watching the Vikings since the team entered the NFL in 1961.
“It is with great sadness that I announce my Grandma Millie passed away earlier today at the age of 102,” Ashley Wall, Millie Wall’s granddaughter, wrote on Twitter. “She was a remarkable woman who lived a beautiful life filled with faith, family, kindness, laughter, and love. She will be so missed by so many and she will never be forgotten.”
It is with great sadness that I announce my Grandma Millie passed away earlier today at the age of 102. She was a remarkable woman who lived a beautiful life filled with faith, family, kindness, laughter, & love. She will be so missed by so many & she will never be forgotten❤️ pic.twitter.com/0t9fYv9BwN
— Ashley Wall (@ashleyjwall) June 10, 2021
Wall suffered through four Super Bowl losses during the 1970s and agonized when Dallas’ Drew Pearson seemed to push off Vikings defender Nate Wright to catch a Hail Mary touchdown pass in a 1975 playoff game to give the Cowboys a shocking victory.
“You just had to bear it,” Wall told WCCO in 2018.
Wall once told KMSP that she would spend every Sunday watching the Vikings with a screwdriver drink in one hand and a fake brick in the other, which she would sometimes throw at the TV.
“There were years I got up all the time so I thought ‘Well, this is dumb,’” Wall told WCCO in 2018. “So now I put a string on (the brick) so I can retrieve it.”
At age 99, Wall became a good luck charm for the Vikings during their playoff run in 2018. The team surprised her with tickets as an early 100th birthday present and her first playoff game in person was memorable, KARE reported. The Vikings defeated the New Orleans Saints 29-24 in the “Minneapolis Miracle,” when Case Keenum threw a last-second game-winning touchdown to Stefon Diggs, WCCO reported.
The Vikings lost the following week to the Philadelphia Eagles and did not go to Super Bowl LII, but Millie Wall was a magical charm for the team.
Her health had been declining in recent months and she died at an area hospital Thursday afternoon, KMSP reported.
“We lost a gem,” her son, Rick Wall, told the television station.
“Our hearts are broken to hear of the passing of Grandma Millie,” the Vikings tweeted. “Millie, who was named one of our 60 Greatest Fans and our 2020 Fan of the Year, will certainly be missed.”
Our hearts are broken to hear of the passing of Grandma Millie.
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) June 11, 2021
Millie, who was named one of our 60 Greatest Fans and our 2020 Fan of the Year, will certainly be missed. pic.twitter.com/eeKeGZR5FV
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