The Vikings will honor the memory of Korey Stringer with a videoboard tribute and a moment of silence before Saturday night's practice inside TCO Stadium. Stringer's No. 77, since retired, also will be painted on the practice field.
Vikings to honor Korey Stringer with tribute and scholarship endowment today
Saturday night's practice at TCO Stadium in Eagan will include several tributes to Korey Stringer, who collapsed from exertional heatstroke at training camp and died 20 years ago.
July 31, 2021 at 9:00PM
A member of the team's Ring of Honor, Stringer collapsed from exertional heatstroke at practice in Mankato on July 31 20 years ago. He died at 1:50 a.m. the next day.
The Vikings also have joined with the NFL Foundation and the Korey Stringer Institute to create the Korey and Kelci Stringer Athletic Training Scholarship with an initial $50,000 endowment. The annual scholarship will benefit athletic training students in partnership with the National Athletic Training Association Research and Education Foundation. Applications will be accepted later this fall for the initial 2022 scholarship.
"This time comes with great honor and respect for those who have committed themselves to seeing through our dreams and hopes of not only providing the knowledge that this is a preventable illness, but also helping to save people's lives," Kelci Stringer, founder of the institute, and Jimmy Gould, chairman of the institute, said in a statement released by the Vikings.
"The culture of football has and is continuing to be positively transformed."
Stringer, the 24th overall pick of the 1995 draft, became a starter in his second game. He made the All-Rookie team, started 100 of 102 games and made the Pro Bowl in his final season. His jersey was retired when he entered the Ring of Honor on Nov. 29, 2001.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
