Metrodome Stadium

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, more commonly known as the Metrodome or Metrodome Stadium, is the current home of both the Vikings football team and the Twins baseball club, as well as the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. It was completed and opened in 1982 and cost an estimated $68 million to build. The Metrodome has the honor of being the only stadium in the world to have hosted the Super Bowl (1992), Major League Baseball's All-Star Game (1985), a pair of World Series (1987, 1991) and the NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament (1992, 2001). Approximately 100 professional or collegiate sporting events and more than 300 total events are held at the facility each year, and since 1982, more than 55 million people have attended an event hosted by the Metrodome. The Vikings lease with the Metrodome expires in 2011, at which time there is a chance that the team may choose to leave Minnesota and relocate elsewhere.

Hubert H. Humphrey: The Man For Whom Metrodome Stadium Is Named

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome stadium is named after the man who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Born in Wallace, South Dakota in 1911, Humphrey graduated from and later became an instructor at the University of Minnesota. He taught political science, and later became involved directly in the subject he helped others learn about. Humphrey served as the Minnesota state chief of war services and as the assistant director of the War Manpower Commission during World War II. He was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 1945, and in 1947 he earned re-election by the largest margin in city history. Humphrey earned renown as an civil rights activist and was elected to served as Minnesota's senator in 1948. He was re-elected in both 1954 and 1960 and eventually became the majority whip. Humphrey tried numerous times without success to secure the Presidency, first in 1960 and later in 1968, 1972 and 1976, but he did serve as Vice President under Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1969. Humphrey died of cancer in 1978, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.