Frank Gilliam, who as a Vikings employee from 1970 to 2007 helped build many of the best teams in franchise history, died Sunday at age 89, the team said.
Gilliam was one of the first Black scouts in NFL history, hired as scouting director in 1970 by Jerry Reichow, then the Vikings director of player personnel. The two were friends and teammates at Iowa, and Reichow, a Vikings wide receiver from 1961 to '64, made Gilliam the first person he hired with the Vikings.
"Jerry and I knew each other since we were 18," Gilliam told the Star Tribune in 2007.