Superior honors memory of Spartan, Vikings legend Doug Sutherland

On Tuesday the Minnesota Vikings announced the passing of defensive legend Doug Sutherland. A Superior native, and graduate of Superior High School, his Spartan community has spent this week remembering the ‘Purple People Eater’.

"Growing up he was someone that we all looked up to, someone that was certainly just a tremendous player and a tremendous person," Bob DeMeyer shared, the head coach of Superior football. "Just someone that we all wanted to be just because of the way he approached things, the way he did things. He came from the same background that we came from."

Sutherland made three Super Bowl appearances during his time in Minnesota. However his Wisconsin home always remained important. The defensive tackle participated in school talks at Superior and called games at his college alma mater the University of Wisconsin-Superior (UWS).

"Coming from similar backgrounds to where our kids come from, that’s a fun story to share," DeMeyer said. "And Doug was always willing to share that story. He was a mountain of a man with a heart of gold and you’d never know he was an NFL player by the way he acted. He was very humble and he was one of us."

Sutherland was 73 years old.