St. Louis Park Cheerleaders Feel Snubbed by Vikings

Before the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders existed, there were the St. Louis Park Parkettes, who were the first official cheerleaders for the NFL expansion team.

The Star Tribune reported that former members of the Parkettes are not happy after being left off the list of former Vikings cheerleaders invited to attend the team's first home preseason game.

"We were the official Vikings cheerleaders for 20 years," Parrel Caplan, an original Parkette from 1964, told the Star Tribune. The Parkettes were neither invited nor allowed register, she says.

Caplan noted that that group performed at all four Vikings Super Bowl appearances.

According to the Parkettes website, the cheerleaders performed at Minneapolis Lakers games before owner Bob Short moved the NBA team to Los Angeles. The site says that in 1964, the Parkettes were asked to be the official Vikings cheerleaders.

The Parkettes are featured on the Vikings website as well, which acknowledges that the Parkettes were with the team until 1984, when the Vikings "retired" the Parkettes and introduced the newly created Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders.

"Before the official Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders came into existence, Vikings fans were led by the St. Louis Park Parkettes. The Parkettes performed at home games at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. There, they cheered the Vikings on to 5 NFL Championships and 4 Super Bowl appearances.

In response to the complaints from former Parkettes, the Vikings organization said in a statement that "We appreciate and respect both the Parkettes and Vi-Queens (the team’s cheerleader group from 1961-63) as part of Minnesota Vikings history. We will look at avenues to honor them in the future."