MINNEAPOLIS >> Bud Grant, the stoic and demanding Hall of Fame coach who took the Minnesota Vikings and their mighty Purple People Eaters defense to four Super Bowls in eight years and lost all of them, died Saturday. He was 95.

The Vikings announced Grant’s death on social media.

“No single individual more defined the Minnesota Vikings than Bud Grant. A once-in-a-lifetime man, Bud will forever be synonymous with success, toughness, the North and the Vikings,” owners Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf said in a joint statement distributed by the team. “In short, he was the Vikings.”

Wearing his trademark purple Vikings cap and a stone-faced demeanor, Grant displayed a steely sideline gaze that became synonymous with his teams. He was a mainstay among coaches of his era, a decorated group that included Don Shula, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, John Madden and Hank Stram. Grant, however, had little interest in accolades.

“The only reason I can see for a head coach getting credit for something good is that he gets so much blame when something is bad,” Grant once said. “The whole secret, I think, is to not react to either the good or the bad.”

He guided the Vikings from 1967-85, with a one-year hiatus in 1984, on his way to a 158-96-5 record with 11 division championships in 18 seasons. He went 10-12 in the playoffs. When he retired, Grant was eighth on the NFL’s all-time victory list.

Skiing

Shiffrin sets World Cup record >> American skier Mikaela Shiffrin set the outright World Cup record for most career victories with 87 by winning a slalom.

Shiffrin broke a tie with Ingemar Stenmark on the all-time overall winners list between men and women. The Swede competed in the 1970s and 80s.

Shiffrin had matched Stenmark’s mark of 86 wins with victory in a giant slalom Friday.

Odermatt locks up overall title >> Olympic champion Marco Odermatt won a men’s World Cup giant slalom as the Swiss skier locked up the overall title.

Odermatt built on his first-run lead to beat Alexis Pinturault of France by 0.23 seconds. Norwegian skier Henrik Kristoffersen was 0.37 behind in third.

Golf

Scheffler has 2-shot lead >> Scottie Scheffler capped off a long day of 26 holes with one last birdie that gave him a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead at The Players Championship, with no one else from the top 10 in the world within seven shots of him.

That might not make the final round any easier given the nature of the TPC Sawgrass as it dries out from a rain that led to a delay.

Min Woo Lee of Australia, the younger brother of U.S. Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee, stayed with Scheffler stride-for-stride after holing out from 131 yards on the opening hole. His only bogey came at the end with a three-putt bogey, giving him a 66.

Television

BBC crisis escalates >> The BBC was forced to scrap much of its weekend sports programming as the network scrambled to stem an escalating crisis over its suspension of soccer host Gary Lineker for comments criticizing the British government’s new asylum policy.

As a growing number of English Premier League players and BBC presenters rallied to Lineker’s support and refused to appear on the airwaves, Britain’s national broadcaster faced allegations of political bias and suppressing free speech, as well as praise from some Conservative politicians.

The broadcaster said it would air only “limited sport programming” this weekend after hosts of many of its popular sports shows declined to appear, in solidarity with Lineker. The former England captain was suspended from “Match of the Day,” a popular soccer highlights show, over a Twitter post that compared lawmakers’ language about migrants to that used in Nazi Germany.

Iditarod

Defending champ leaves race >> Brent Sass, the defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, withdrew from this year’s race, citing concerns for his health.

Sass scratched at the Eagle Island checkpoint, a statement from the Iditarod said. Eagle Island is about 600 miles (966 kilometers) into the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race.

“He didn’t feel he could care for his team due to current concerns with his periodontal health,” the statement said. The condition typically relates to gum disease.