The world of professional sports has its share of strange, but true stories.
Dual sport athletes have been around for a long time, but sometimes there are surprises.
Bud Grant played two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles back in 1951 and 1952 in a rather nondescript career in the National Football League.
After a season on defense, Grant switched to offense and caught 56 passes for 997 yards and seven touchdowns as the Eagles finished 7-5. Those were his only seasons as a player in the NFL.
At that point, Grant headed to the Canadian Football League and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he would become a legend.
During his four seasons with the Blue Bombers, he grabbed 216 passes for 3,200 yards and 13 touchdowns.
In 1957, Grant began a 10-year run as the head coach in Winnipeg where he won four Grey Cup championships in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962. Overall, he was 115–60–3 with the Blue Bombers.
Grant returned to the NFL as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1967. He would coach the Vikings until 1983 and then add another season in 1985.
With the Vikings, Grant posted a career record of 168-108-5, giving him a total of 283 wins as a head coach.
Minnesota won the NFL title in 1969, which was the last before the merger with the American Football League. It was also the first of four losses in the Super Bowl for the Vikings, who won NFC titles in 1973, 1974 and 1976.
Grant was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994 after being a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame since 1983.
Basketball?
Yes, basketball. Grant played football, basketball and baseball at the University of Minnesota.
He was All-Big 10 twice in football, was the Most Valuable Player for the basketball squad and even pitched and played outfield for the baseball team. He was inducted into the “M” Club Hall of Fame in 1991.
Before Grant joined the Eagles, he was a member of the Minneapolis Lakers from 1949 to 1951.
Drafted by the Lakers and the Eagles, Grant chose basketball and it would lead to his first professional championship.
Grant scored three points in his debut with the Lakers against the Fort Wayne Pistons on Christmas Day in 1949.
By the end of the season, Grant and the Lakers led by the legendary George Mikan won the National Basketball Association title in six games over the Syracuse Nationals. Grant averaged 5.5 points per game in the series.
Grant’s best game of that season was a 14-point effort against the Philadelphia Warriors.
The next season he reached double figures four times as the Lakers reached the Western Division finals.
Overall in his career, he appeared 96 regular season games and averaged 2.6 points a game. In 17 post-season contests, he scored 3.2 per game.