It started with a phone call, the kind Bob Hagan has taken thousands of times in his role as the Minnesota Vikings' public relations director, during the final week of January in 2007.
Sid Hartman, a Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist and the legendary dean of Minnesota media, had a request. Someone had told Sid that the halftime performer for Super Bowl XLI had a Minnesota connection.
"He said, 'Hey, I want to say hello to that Prince guy,'" Hagan recalled this week. "'Can you set that up? I want to say hello.'"