The 1961 NFL Expansion Draft was a National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, named the Minnesota Vikings, selected its first players. In August 1959, a group of Minneapolis businessmen were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League (AFL). In January 1960, they forfeited their AFL membership and were awarded a 90% stake in the 14th franchise of the NFL (the other 10%, under a decades-old agreement, went to former Duluth Kelleys/Eskimos owner Ole Haugsrud).