It’s a 24-hour train ride from Whitefish to Minneapolis where the Minnesota Vikings play football. Over the last two NFL seasons, the Vikings have won a total of nine games, but Kalispell resident Ronn Larsen has still made the exhaustive trip six times. That’s how devoted he is to his team.
“He is a very loyal Vikings fan,” Larsen’s coworker Jim Kelly said. “Given the fact they’ve not done so well these last couple years, a lot of fans have dropped off. But he’s been heartily sticking by them.”
The 53-year-old social worker from Vermont has been a Minnesota fan for more than 30 years and the roots of his fandom have rather unique origins.
“My grandfather came from Norway, so I like anything related to vikings,” he said.
His Nordic kinship with the purple and gold only strengthened when he moved to Kalispell, putting him closer to Mall of America Field. Two seasons ago, he was finally able to attend his first game after buying partial season tickets to three games a year. As a way to afford it he settled on riding the train instead of flying. The fact that the Vikes had started taking a downward slide didn’t matter. He was making the trips to Minnesota.
On New Year’s Day, Larsen’s loyalty was rewarded in a big way. Vikings first-year assistant coach Jeff Davidson, who spends time in the Flathead Valley throughout the offseason, pulled some strings after learning about a fan who journeys 48 hours round-trip from Montana to watch the Vikes play.
A couple days after Christmas, Larsen received a phone call. Be at a certain location before the Jan. 1 game and you’ll be able to step onto the field, but don’t be late. He already had a ticket to the final game of the regular season between Minnesota and the Chicago Bears and he was scheduled to leave on Saturday. But he wasn’t about to risk missing this opportunity. So he left Whitefish on Friday and arrived a day early.
On game day, he met at the designated area inside the stadium and found a crowd of about 20 people gathered there. They were going to be let onto the field momentarily when someone from the Vikings runs out carrying a flag.
Larsen introduced himself to a staff member.
“Oh you’re the guy from Montana,” she said, then told the crowd to wait there while she ran downstairs. She turned to Larsen and said, “Come with me.”
Larsen and one other person were escorted to the ground level, past security. Pretty soon Larsen realized he was stepping out onto the field. The woman turned to Larsen and told him, “We’re making you honorary team captain.”
During the national anthem Larsen stood behind the row of Vikings players. When it came to the coin toss, Larsen walked to midfield with Jim Kleinsasser, a longtime Viking who was retiring after the final game, and met Brian Urlacher and the other Bears captains. The loudspeaker announced Larsen as the honorary team captain from Kalispell, as he stood there nervously in front of more than 60,000 fans.
The moment went by in a flash, and even now feels unbelievable.
“It was like being a kid going to Disneyland for the first time,” he said. “I was like, ‘This is the best moment in my life.’ I was just stunned.”
Davidson and others came up to Larsen afterward and thanked him for traveling all the way from Kalispell to support the team. The Vikes lost their final game and finished the season 3-13. But Larsen hardly noticed the score, and didn’t care about the final standings. That’s not why he’s a Vikings fan.
“If you really love your team, (the score) doesn’t really matter,” he said.