One day in 1968, Mike Lynn returned home from his job at an arearetail store to deliver a delicate piece of news to his pregnantwife, Jorja: He had quit that job.
From then on, he would work exclusively on promoting preseasonexhibition professional football games in Memphis.
It could not have been a particularly pleasant piece of news toshare. Yet it served as the propeller for a most unlikely ascensionto lofty places -- general manager of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings,even part owner.
Lynn, who had been ailing for several months, died Saturday. Hewas 76.
Associates recalled a tireless worker who was as central toMemphis' early efforts to land a NFL franchise as anyone.
I don't even know where Mike came from -- he just appeared oneday, said Memphis advertising executive John Malmo, who worked onthe city's NFL pursuits in those days.
Mr. Lynn, a native of Scranton, Pa., first eased his way into thelocal efforts with that 1968 game, a contest between the New YorkJets and the Cincinnati Bengals at then-three-year-old MemphisMemorial Stadium (now Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium).
In 1969, he formed Mid-South Sports, a group of Memphiansinterested in pursuing a franchise. He also formed MTSP, anacronym for Memphis, Tampa, Seattle and Phoenix, four cities thatwere attempting to woo the NFL.
In 1972, Mr. Lynn and other representatives from those citieswent to New York to meet with then-commissioner Pete Rozelle. Theywere rebuffed.
Mr. Lynn then lobbied Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt to pushexpansion with Rozelle, who allowed it on the owners' agenda. In1974, Memphis became a finalist.
To Mr. Lynn, it was an obvious pitch: Memphis, with one millionpeople at the time, could support an NFL team as well or betterthan, say, Minneapolis, where two million people had theirattentions divided among all four major sports leagues.
The pursuit seemed to be in good hands until the now-defunctWorld Football League was awarded a Liberty Bowl lease before theNFL awarded franchises. The NFL placed new teams in Seattle andTampa.
In the summer of 1974, using the connections he made in Memphis'failed pursuit, Mr. Lynn was hired as assistant to the president ofthe Vikings.
After an ownership change the next year, Mr. Lynn was elevated tothe team's general manager, a position he held through the 1990season. Mr. Lynn's time produced nine playoff appearances but healso presided over a trade with the Dallas Cowboys for HerschelWalker in 1989 that would provide the grist for the Cowboys' mid-1990s dynasty.
Mr. Lynn moved to the Walter Place in Holly Springs, Miss., an1859 Greek Revival with Gothic towers, shortly after retiring in1992. In his later years, his business interests included the OxfordUniversity Club, a ritzy restaurant and gathering place.
The guy went from sort of hanging on to one of the owners, former Showboats coach Pepper Rodgers recalled, still laughing atthe incredulity of it all. I mean, it was an amazing story, whenyou think about it from rags to riches.
Mr. Lynn is survived by his wife, Jorja, and four children.Services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church inOxford. Visitation is from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Waller FuneralHome in Oxford.
