Gary Larsen

Gary Larsen (born March 13, 1942) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL).

Early life
Larsen grew up on a wheat farm near Moorhead in northern Minnesota, where he played eight-man football in high school. He played college football at Concordia College in two separate stints. He enrolled at Concordia in 1957 but left to join the United States Marines due to struggling with his grades. He spent three years there (playing two in service football) and started a family with his newly married wife that resulted in him having a daughter by the time he returned to Concordia. A stout defensive tackle, teams averaged 2.9 yards per carry versus Concordia in his senior season. He also played basketball during his time in college.

Professional career
He started his NFL career in 1964 with the Los Angeles Rams, backing up Merlin Olsen (part of the Fearsome Foursome) but was traded as a "throw-in" part of a deal that sent Larsen and Jim Phillips to the Minnesota Vikings for Jack Snow (drafted by the Vikings to his disapproval) in 1965. At the time, the Vikings had defensive end Carl Eller (a fellow second-year player) and Jim Marshall on the roster.

Alan Page, drafted to play defensive tackle in 1967, was the final piece of what became known as the "Purple People Eaters" with Eller, Marshall, and Larsen. Larsen (nicknamed the “Norse Nightmare”) was stated as a key piece of the unit's success because of the freedom that the unit had to go where the football was located because "he had our backs all the time". The complete unit would reach the Super Bowl three times: Super Bowl IV (doing so by winning the 1969 NFL Championship Game, Super Bowl VIII and Super Bowl IX. In 1969, the entire unit was elected to the Pro Bowl, and none of the unit missed a game from 1968 to 1973. Larsen did not start in Super Bowl IX, his final game as a player, as he had been supplanted by Doug Sutherland in the lineup due to injuries to his foot along with a sore knee.

Sacks were not officially tracked until 1982, but statisticians have retroactively accounted for a majority of NFL sacks going back to 1960, with Larsen being found to have had 38.5 sacks in his career, with ten occurring in 1968. Larsen was recognized as one of the 50 Greatest Vikings in 2010.

Personal life
As of 2013, Larsen lived in Lacey, Washington with his wife after years spent in Bellevue, Washington managing a Ford dealership. In 2013, Larsen was one of more than 4,500 former football players who filed a lawsuit against the league over concussions and other head injuries.