Alan Page, the great defensive end who played the first 12 years of his Hall of Fame career with the Minnesota Vikings, never liked the moniker that was hung on the team's ferocious defense in the late 1960s.

"I am not purple and I don't eat people," he said.

You could have fooled running backs and quarterbacks because to them, Page, Carl Eller, Gary Larsen and Jim Marshall most certainly were purple, and they most certainly ate people, at least on Sunday afternoons.

The Purple People-Eaters (L to R -- Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, Alan Page, Jim Marshall). (Provided to SportsLine)

"The Purple People-Eaters" they were called, and for nearly a decade, they were as dominant as any defense in NFL history, their records overlooked somewhat, however, because they lost four times in the Super Bowl during that period.

Their motto was "Meet at the quarterback" and when they did, oh, it was ugly. One of the quarterbacks who felt their wrath on a regular basis was Green Bay's Bart Starr. In a 1968 game, Starr -- who had won two Super Bowls in a row -- was sacked three times by Eller and also watched Eller recover a fumble and block a field goal.

"Doug Atkins, Deacon Jones and Gino Marchetti are pretty special, but Carl Eller combines the best qualities of all of them," said Starr, who also suffered an eight-sack day against Minnesota in 1969. "He has it all: strength, excellent speed for a big man, quickness on the pass rush and agility to defend against the run. He's the finest defensive end I've ever seen."

Of Page, Starr said: "He's the best tackle I've ever faced." Page was 22 years old at the time.

Marshall had been a fixture on the defensive line since 1961, Minnesota's inaugural season. He was a solid player, but he had underachieved for much of his first six years and was best known for his 66-yard wrong way run with a San Francisco fumble. By running into his own end zone and throwing the ball into the crowd, he scored a safety for the 49ers, one of the most famous plays in NFL history.

But when Eller joined the team in 1964, Larsen in '65 and Page in '67, the year Bud Grant became head coach, Marshall found his groove. He ultimately would retire in 1979 having started an NFL record 270 games in a row.

"He was a football player who was just out of this world in what he contributed to his team," said Grant. "His skills were only part of it. He had speed and instincts, but a lot of players have that. What he had that nobody I've ever seen could equal was a quality a lot of fans don't think about - he refused to go down with an injury. When he got cut, he didn't seem to bleed as bad as other players."

In that 1967 season, the Vikings struggled to a 3-8-3 record, but with one year in Grant's system, it was obvious Minnesota was a team on the rise. In 1968, the Vikings won the Central Division with a record of 8-6 and bowed out in the playoffs to eventual NFL champion Baltimore. But beginning in 1969, the Vikings became the NFC's dominant team as they won four of the next seven league championships, only to lose in all four Super Bowl appearances. In the 11-year stretch from 1968-78, they won their division 10 times.

The impetus behind this success was Grant's defense, every bit as harsh as a Minnesota winter. For three straight years (1969-71) the Vikings led the league in fewest points allowed including 133 in 1969, the fewest ever permitted in a schedule of at least 14 games.

And the key to the defense was the play of the front four, none of whom weighed more than 250 pounds.

"What you look for is a man who plays big," said Jack Patera, who served as the Vikings defensive line coach before taking over as head coach of the expansion Seattle Seahawks in 1976. "If he can control his area at the line of scrimmage, he's big enough.

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Alan Page

"The important point in rushing the passer is not how often you dump him, but how much pressure you put on him. The job of a defensive line is to collapse the pocket on a quarterback and crowd him into inaccuracy. If you do this correctly, the sacks will take care of themselves."

In that 11-year period of excellence, the Vikings averaged 37 sacks per season. Not a huge average, but as Patera said, it was the constant pressure that told the more telling story. Only three times did Minnesota allow an average of more than 150 yards passing per game.

"A great line can hide a lot of defensive defects, they're your shock troops," said Patera. "They get there first, they can disrupt the run and upset the passer. They're as important to the defense as the quarterback is to the offense."

The front line was not alone, though. Roy Winston had begun what became a 15-year career in 1962 and by the late 60's was a rock at outside linebacker. In 1968 free safety Paul Krause joined the club from Washington and he went on to set the all-time NFL record for career interceptions with 81, 53 of them coming as a Viking. Linebacker Wally Hilgenberg became a starter in '68, and in '69, cornerback Bobby Bryant - who ranks second on the team's interception list behind Krause with 51 - joined him.

Into the 70's, players such as middle linebacker Jeff Siemon, who ranks third on the team's all-time tackles list, and cornerback Nate Wright also became vital contributors as Grant successfully ushered the team through the aging process.

"You don't get called Purple People-Eaters for nothing," Kansas City coach Hank Stram remarked before Super Bowl IV was played. "They really come after you."