Throughout the off-season nfluk.com's Neil Reynolds will be looking back at some of the moments that shaped the NFL's growth in the UK. In this week's Moments in Time column, Neil looks back on the first NFL teams to play in the UK - a matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and St Louis Cardinals for the ‘Global Cup'.

The American Bowl contest between the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys grabbed considerable headlines and media attention in the summer of 1986.

But the low-key meeting between the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Cardinals three years earlier will always trump that more high-profile affair as the first NFL game to be played at Wembley Stadium.

On the heels of a successful airing of the Miami Dolphins-Washington Redskins Super Bowl on Channel 4, American football was growing in popularity in the United Kingdom and Wembley promoter Jarvis Astaire wanted in on the act, persuading the Vikings to bring one of their home exhibition games to London.

Rather than serve as an official NFL event like the latter American Bowls, this contest was arranged directly with the Vikings and Cardinals, who fought for preseason glory and the right to lift The Global Cup.

While the prize may not have been that prestigious, and the action on the field was not the most memorable in pro football history, the event did serve three useful functions - first, it exposed new fans to the sport of American football; second, it provided the small number of hard-core supporters at that time with the opportunity to experience an NFL game in their own back yard; and finally, it showed the NFL bosses in New York that it was indeed possible to take two teams across the Atlantic and stage a game, albeit a preseason one.

The crowd on hand on August 6, 1983, may have been relatively sparse - there were around 30,000 spectators in what was still a 100,000-seat/terracing venue at that time - but the event caused considerable excitement for some.

Among those keen to see the Vikings and Cardinals butt heads on the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium was David Tossell, who currently serves as Director of Public Affairs for the NFL in Europe.

Tossell had fallen in love with the New York Jets while vacationing on Long Island the previous summer. He devoured every piece of information he could find on the Jets and the NFL, watched with delight as the Redskins downed the Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII and was desperate for more NFL as the 1983 campaign drew ever closer.

The former Windsor Monarchs and Slough Silverbacks cornerback was delighted to learn that the Vikings and Cardinals were heading to London - but he endured a nerve-wracking day at another major sporting event before booking his tickets for the big game.

"It was the summer of 1983 and I decided to go to Wimbledon for the day," Tossell recalled. "I got there really early and started queuing about seven o'clock in the morning. Someone was selling early editions of The Evening Standard and I remember seeing a quarter-page advert for The Global Cup - Minnesota Vikings v St. Louis Cardinals and I was just so excited.

"I had stood in this line at Wimbledon for about three hours and my first instinct was just to run. This was before mobile phones, of course. I just wanted to run to the nearest phone box and get some tickets but I had to convince myself that there was not going to be 80,000 people buying them all on the first day.

"I tried to stay calm, had a day watching the tennis at Wimbledon and then I bought tickets for the NFL game the following morning."

With his tickets secured, Tossell arrived at Wembley Stadium early on that notable August afternoon. He was keen to soak up every piece of the occasion and was struck by the odd sight of more than 150 American football players warming up in the national stadium.

"Even though I was a fan by that stage, it was just this odd experience of seeing these players in what, at that time, was still very odd-looking gear," Tossell explained. "And seeing that in the flesh for the first time at Wembley Stadium was strange. What struck me as strange was seeing NFL players in helmets - up until then, the only time you saw sportsmen in helmets would have been in a film like Rollerball.

"It was all a bit space-age to see it there in front of you."

Tommy Kramer quarterbacked the Minnesota Vikings to a 28-10 win, while a Cardinals team that featured star running back Stump Mitchell, was led by Neil Lomax. For Tossell, they were famous names to look out for - for others, they might as well have been random men grabbed off the street just before the kick-off.

"I remember the crowd being very subdued" Tossell recalled. "The stadium wasn't half full and maybe the crowd picked up on the vibe that the players weren't particularly taking the game seriously. It seemed quiet. I was loving it because I understood the sport but there were fans there who didn't understand what was going on.

"I relished the whole experience because I thought it might be the one and only NFL game I would see in the flesh, but other people there were a little bit curious and so the game didn't quite have that buzz. The fact that the players on the field were trying to win jobs also went over the heads of some of the fans at that stage."

In terms of the game itself, that was fairly indistinct, even for a dedicated fan like Tossell, who admitted: "I do think the event helped anoraks like me get a quick NFL fix further ahead of when we thought we might do.

"I remember the excitement of the build-up but I remember very little about the game itself - not one single play stands out. I would be very surprised if you could find anyone who said they got into the sport because they remembered the Minnesota Vikings playing the St. Louis Cardinals in 1983."

That sounded like a challenge and we relish such a test here at nfluk.com. We went digging and while we couldn't find someone who became a fan purely because of the Vikings-Cardinals clash, we did discover a man whose life has been dramatically changed due to that game.

Geoff Reader, 49, of Bedford, began watching the NFL on Channel 4 in 1982 but by the time the Vikings-Cardinals game rolled around the following summer, he had yet to commit himself to one team.

"Me and my mate, Steve, decided to go to the Wembley game and we came up with our own version of tailgating by going to the pub beforehand," Reader explained. "We decided to support one team each and the loser of the game would buy the next round - it was our usual sporting bet.

"So we came to the decision that I would be a Minnesota Vikings fan and we wandered up to the stadium and bought tickets on the door."

Like Tossell, Reader has trouble recalling exact details of the exhibition game, but he was well and truly struck by the NFL bug and became a firm fan of the Vikings.

"I have two abiding memories from that day," Reader recalled. "I couldn't believe I had chosen a team that wore purple and I remember we all got down on the pitch for the presentation of The Global Cup. I remember thinking, "Those are big guys."

"The other thing I remember is that it was not as knowledgeable crowd as we are used to now at Wembley Stadium for NFL games. The game itself is not very memorable at all - I recall we had Tommy Kramer at quarterback and we scored on a punt return. But that's about all."

In the months and years that followed, Reader became more and more dedicated to the Minnesota Vikings and made several trips to the United States to watch his heroes in action.

"After the Wembley game, I started reading up on the Vikings and began looking for their results and following them each weekend," Reader revealed. "I started going to America to watch games and I also collected old media guides. I remember one year asking the Vikings for a media guide and in the package they sent me was a season ticket application form. I thought, ‘Why not?' And I have been a season ticket holder since 1994.

"That 1983 Wembley game proved to be the most expensive bet I ever won!

"I have done one season of going to every single Vikings' home game and I normally average five or six regular season home games during the course of each year. That is a big commitment."

From the humble beginnings of a rather-empty Wembley Stadium in 1983, Reader has witnessed some thrilling games in Minnesota over the years. This past season alone, he marvelled at Brett Favre's game-winning heroics at the death against the San Francisco 49ers and he was on hand to cheer the playoff victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

"That is why I go to watch the games," he insisted. "You can never capture an atmosphere like that by watching on television at home. I have gone from watching in a quiet Wembley Stadium to the thrill of being there for big playoff victories - it has been quite a journey and there are times when it is heartbreaking being a Vikings fan."

While there have been moments of disappointment along the way - most notably this past season's NFC Championship Game against New Orleans - Reader is more than happy to continue his love affair with the Vikings for many years to come.

And it was a romance that began in the unlikely setting of Wembley Stadium on August 6, 1983.

Were you at the 1983 Vikings-Cardinals game at Wembley Stadium? Tell us your memories of that day. Geoff Reader became a Vikings fan because of that game - how did you become a fan of your team? Let us know...