Minnesota entered the league as an expansion team in 1961 - and promptly beat the venerable Eagles in their first seven meetings. It was 18 years before Philadelphia scored its first series victory.

The Vikings' first coach (Norm Van Brocklin) was a great Eagle. Their greatest coach (Bud Grant) was a so-so Eagle. And two great ex-Eagles (Randall Cunningham and Cris Carter) sparked Minnesota's greatest regular season, in 1998.

Perhaps the most memorable juncture of these two franchises, however, occurred on a cold December day at Veterans Stadium. In the astonishing final eight-plus minutes of that Minnesota victory, a path opened up for a new, harder-edged, more passionate era of Eagles Football, one that would be guided by a feisty, bespectacled Oklahoman named Buddy Ryan.

But on that Sunday, Dec. 1, 1985, Marion Campbell was the coach of the 6-6 Eagles. "The Swamp Fox" had assumed Dick Vermeil's job when the burned-out Vermeil resigned after the 1982 season.

"Marion was much more of a delegater than Dick," said John Spagnola, then the team's starting tight end. "He was low-key. He let Ted Marchibroda run the offense and just concerned himself with the defense."

The Eagles were a combination of aging leftovers from the '80 Super Bowl team (Ron Jaworski and Wilbert Montgomery), and a few talented newcomers like Mike Quick and Reggie White. They'd begun the season 1-4 but won five of their last seven to get back into playoff contention.

"We had hopes," Spagnola said.

Minnesota, meanwhile, had lost five of seven and came to Philadelphia with a 5-7 record and little hope. Quarterback Tommy Kramer was out - with what Grant mysteriously termed "wear-and-tear" injuries. Their leading rusher was Darrin Nelson, their top receiver tight end Steve Jordan.

Jaworski, in his last productive season here, was estranged from owner Norman Braman and hoped to parlay a strong finish into a contract extension.

As fate would have it, Braman, criticized often for ignoring Eagles history, had brought back the 1960 NFL champions that day for a 25th reunion ceremony at halftime.

The old players laughed and drank raucously in Braman's box as the Eagles built a 20-0 halftime. The lead grew to 23-0 in the third quarter. On the Eagles radio broadcast, color commentator Stan Walters was urging Campbell to rest his starters.

Even after the lead was trimmed to 23-7 on a 7-yard TD catch by Allen Rice with 81/2 minutes left, things still seemed rosy. The Eagles' 54,688 playoff-hungry fans were sizing up the season's final three opponents - Washington, San Diego and, in a strange scheduling quirk, Minnesota again in the finale.

Then, on their next possession, Jaworski called a run for Earnest Jackson. But the QB spotted a hole in the Vikings defense and, despite his leaden legs, took off on a naked bootleg. It would prove to be an unusually costly mistake - for Jaworski, for Campbell, for the Eagles.

"It's something a lot of quarterbacks did then," said Spagnola. "If they thought the defensive end wasn't going to stay at home, they'd take off and run. Unfortunately for Ron on that play, the end stayed home."

The quarterback fumbled. Minnesota's Willie Teal snatched it up and rumbled 65 yards for a touchdown. It was 23-14 with 6 minutes, 1 second left.

"I have no second thoughts about it," Jaworski said later. "That was the time to call the keeper."

Meanwhile, at the start of the third quarter, Grant had benched QB Wade Wilson, an anemic 6 for 14 for 44 yards. He played rookie Steve Bono, a Norristown native. But Bono went 1 for 10 and Grant soon returned to a now-angry Wilson.

Then, with 4:19 left, Spagnola, struggling for an extra yard after picking up a first down on a third-and-9 play, lost a fumble. Wilson went back to work. Three plays into Minnesota's drive, he hit Anthony Carter for a 36-yard touchdown that made it 23-21 with 3:58 to go.

Philadelphia went three-and-out, and on the Vikings next possession, Wilson scrambled away from an Eagles blitz. Just before being hit, he unloaded a 42-yard TD pass to Carter, who, thanks to a mistake by cornerback Roynell Young, was wide open.

There was 1:11 left and, unimaginably, the Eagles now trailed.

Booed by a crowd that was now on the verge of being a mob, Jaworski got Philadelphia as far as Minnesota's 29 before time expired. The home team's locker room was a morgue.

"That was as bad a series of events as I've ever seen transpire on a Football field," said Spagnola. "We were dumbfounded."

Braman, surrounded by the flabbergasted '60 team, was embarrassed. A day later, he gave Campbell, who called the loss the "toughest I've ever experienced as a coach or a player," a tepid vote of confidence.

"I'm not going to judge anybody on the basis of seven minutes," Braman said.

But two more defeats, to Washington and San Diego, were long enough. He fired Campbell.

Ironically, in their final game, the 7-9 Eagles won at Minnesota, 37-35. It gave Fred Bruney, a defensive assistant who'd been named interim coach for the contest, his only NFL head-coaching victory.

Within a few weeks, and after a deal with untested David Shula fell through, Braman hired Ryan.

The ornery little coach didn't like Jaworski. He brought in Matt Cavanaugh from San Francisco and would bench Jaworski on third-down plays - in favor of rookie Cunningham.

"Ryan would tell Randall to go in there and make something happen," Spagnola recalled, "which was basically all he told him throughout his career."

Jaworski was benched late in the season and released after it ended.

Ryan's blunt, in-your-face demeanor, along with the team's renewed success, ratcheted up interest in the Eagles to unprecedented levels.

"The fans loved the stuff Ryan said," said Spagnola, "but unfortunately a lot of it ended up on the bulletin boards of the teams we were playing."

Contact staff writer Frank Fitzpatrick at 215-854-5068 or ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com