Ron Yary

Overview

Ron Yary at a Glance

Ron Yary was born in Chicago on 16 July 1946, grew up in California, and went to Bellflower High School before a spell at Cerritos College took him on to the University of Southern California. He is still living; he turned 80 in July 2026.

He is listed at 6 ft 5 in and 255 lb — ordinary for a modern tackle, unusual enough in 1968 that the Vikings' own account of him credits "a blend of size, speed and strength that was unique at the time." Minnesota drafted him first overall, moved him into the starting line-up in his second season, and left him there. He played 199 regular-season games for the Vikings across fourteen years and 207 in total, closing his career with the Los Angeles Rams in 1982.

What he has instead of statistics is a run of honours that is almost unbroken through the 1970s: seven consecutive Pro Bowls, six consecutive first-team All-Pro selections from the Associated Press, eight straight All-NFC teams, a place on the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1970s, the Vikings Ring of Honor in 2000 and Canton in 2001.

The 1968 Draft

The First Offensive Lineman Ever Taken First Overall

The claim gets repeated loosely, so it is worth stating precisely: Yary was taken with the first selection of the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft, and the Minnesota Vikings' own club biography says flatly that "he was the first offensive lineman ever to be selected first overall." Before 1968 the top pick had always gone to a back, an end, or a defensive player.

The pick itself was not originally Minnesota's. The Vikings had acquired it from the New York Giants in the trade that sent Fran Tarkenton to New York — so the franchise turned its own future Hall of Fame quarterback into the Hall of Fame tackle who would eventually block for him, once Tarkenton returned to Minnesota in 1972.

Before the NFL: USC and the Outland Trophy

Yary played three seasons for the Trojans, 1965 through 1967. He was a consensus All-American in 1966 and a unanimous All-American in 1967, won the 1967 Outland Trophy as the best interior lineman in college football, and finished on a USC team that won the 1967 national championship. The National Football Foundation, which elected him to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987, records USC at 24–7–1 over his three years.

The Decade

Seven Pro Bowls, Six First-Team All-Pros, Back to Back to Back

From 1971 to 1977 Yary went to the Pro Bowl every single year. From 1971 to 1976 the Associated Press named him first-team All-Pro every single year; in 1977 it moved him to the second team. The Hall of Fame also credits him with eight consecutive All-NFC selections, 1970 through 1977.

1. 1967Outland Trophy and unanimous All-American at USC
2. 1968Selected first overall by Minnesota
3. 1971–76First-team All-Pro (Associated Press) in six consecutive seasons
4. 1971–77Seven consecutive Pro Bowl selections
5. 1987College Football Hall of Fame
6. 2000Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor
7. 2001Pro Football Hall of Fame

January, Four Times

Four Super Bowls, Four Defeats

Yary was on the roster for every Super Bowl the Minnesota Vikings have ever reached. The team lost all four. There is no qualifying clause to add: the franchise has never won a Super Bowl, and Yary's four appearances are four losses.

The Hall of Fame counts five NFL or NFC Championship Games in his career. The defensive half of those teams — Carl Eller, Alan Page, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen — became the most famous thing about the era. Yary's job was the other edge of it, in front of the quarterback.

A Note on Numbers

Why There Is No Stat Table on This Page

Offensive tackles of Yary's era generate almost no counting statistics. Sacks did not become an official NFL statistic until 1982, the year he retired, and sacks allowed were never an official statistic at all. Pressures, hurries and blown blocks were not tracked league-wide. Pro Football Reference's page for him records two fumble recoveries and nothing else in fifteen seasons, which is exactly what you would expect.

So the honest record is games, starts and honours. He played 207 regular-season games and started 180 of them. He appeared in 199 of those games for Minnesota. The Hall of Fame's profile says he took over at right tackle from his second season onward and missed only two games to injury across his fourteen Minnesota seasons, having broken an ankle in 1980 and played on through the rest of that year.

Canton and the Ring

Class of 2001, and the No. 73 Question

The Vikings put Yary into their Ring of Honor in 2000. The Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined him the following summer as part of the Class of 2001, alongside Nick Buoniconti, Marv Levy, Mike Munchak, Jackie Slater, Lynn Swann and Jack Youngblood.

It is sometimes written that Yary went in through the seniors committee. He did not. The seniors nominee for the Class of 2001 was Buoniconti; Yary was elected as a modern-era candidate, nineteen years after his last NFL season.

His No. 73 has not been retired by the Vikings. Among the numbers the franchise has retired are No. 10 for Fran Tarkenton, No. 53 for Mick Tingelhoff, No. 70 for Jim Marshall, No. 77 for Korey Stringer, No. 80 for Cris Carter and No. 88 for Alan Page. Yary's Ring of Honor place and gold jacket are his permanent marks on the franchise; the jersey number is not one of them.