Analysis: On Thursday at Vikings training camp, Jim Marshall was captain again

If TCO Performance Center had a Field of Purple Dreams, there’s only one player from 65 seasons of Vikings football who would emerge from that heavenly cornfield leading this franchise as its team captain.

“No question, Jim Marshall,” said former Viking Scott Studwell, who was at TCO in Eagan on Thursday as the Vikings honored the late ironman with Jim Marshall Day.

“Jim was the captain of my teams when we played together [1977-79], all the Vikings teams that came before me. And he’d be the captain of this team right out on this field today. Some guys just have that gift. He was special. He just had a presence that you looked at him and he was just Vikings royalty.”

Marshall died June 3 in Minneapolis. He was 87.

The Vikings kicked off training camp last month with Marshall’s No. 70 painted into the hillside next to the practice fields. The only player in franchise history to wear that number, Marshall carried No. 70 on his back during the team’s first 19 seasons, never missing a start after coming to Minnesota following his rookie year in Cleveland. He still ranks first among all NFL defensive players with 270 consecutive starts and 282 consecutive games played.

“Jim never gave up, ever,” said his widow, Susan Landwehr Marshall, who was joined by 25 family members at TCO on Thursday.

The Vikings used the video board inside TCO Stadium to play a four-minute clip celebrating Marshall’s career. It was shot back when Bud Grant, who died in 2023, was still alive.

Susan grew up in Mankato, where she met Jim on one of those hot summer days long ago when the Vikings held their training camp there. Thursday, she stood near this year’s team as coach Kevin O’Connell concluded practice by speaking to the players about Marshall and his legacy.

“That was special hearing Kevin talking about Jim,” Susan said. “I’m really thankful to the Wilfs for being so generous in honoring Jim. I struggle talking without having a little tear in my eye.

“But, you know, coming out here is great because training camp was Jim’s thing. He was kind of the Pied Piper. He was the guy who led everybody and made sure everyone was going to enjoy training camp as much as you could.”

As Pied Piper in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Marshall did some things that would be, um, frowned upon by today’s NFL.

Such as …

Bud would tell Marshall when it was time.

“We’d all be sitting in our cars outside Gage Hall, engines revving,” Lurtsema said. “Jim would reach for that gun, put his hand out the window and ‘Ba-Wham!’ Tires screeching and we’re all flying up 169.”

“Jim going 100 mph,” Studwell added.

And the peace officers looking the other way?

“Yeah, you could say that,” Studwell said.

“I have been looking for the gun in the house and have not found it,” she said. “I found a couple other revolvers, but I have not found that gun.”

She called Bud’s son, Mike. He didn’t know where it was. Susan asked him what kind of gun it was.

“And Mike said, ‘I just know it was big because Jim would shoot it right next to me,’” Susan said.

Among the 25 family members and 35 friends from “The Link” – a nonprofit organization for youth and young families that Marshall started – was Kayla Jones. She’s Marshall’s great granddaughter and a member of TCU’s track team, running the 400 and 800 meters.

Kayla was wearing a Jim Marshall jersey and a necklace with a charm in the shape of a track cleat given to Jim when he set the Ohio State record in the discus in the late ‘50s. She caressed the charm as she spoke about what Thursday meant to her.