Presented by PINNACLE WINDOWS & DOORS.
This Day In Sports…September 17, 1961, 65 years ago today:
The expansion Minnesota Vikings make a spectacular entry into the NFL with a 37-13 rout of the Chicago Bears at the old Met in Bloomington. Rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton came off the bench and made an immediate impact with four touchdown passes and another on the ground. The Vikings would go 3-11 in their first season, but Tarkenton’s scrambling style caught on quickly with fans in the Twin Cities, who were ecstatic about the NFL coming to town.
Minneapolis had lost the NBA’s Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960, but the Washington Senators (and Payette phenom Harmon Killebrew) had relocated there earlier in 1961, becoming the Minnesota Twins. The Vikings essentially cemented the area’s status as a major sports market. In fact, the team wanted to make sure it captured the whole state, so it held the first training camp more than 200 miles in Bemidji. Players were treated like royalty, and “Skol Nation” was born.
After the stunning opener, the rest of the season was a reality check for the undermanned Vikings. But Tarkenton was worth the price of admission, passing for almost 2,000 yards and throwing for 18 touchdowns against 17 interceptions (at a time when that ratio was not unusual). More importantly, Tarkenton became the NFL’s first real dual-threat quarterback, rushing for 308 yards and five TDs on the season. He ran for 99 yards in a November loss to the L.A. Rams.
But coach Norm Van Brocklin, formerly a great pocket passer, hated Tarkenton’s scrambling, and the Vikings accommodated the frustrated QB’s demand for a trade by dealing him to the New York Giants in 1967. Van Brocklin was long gone in 1972, and Minnesota coach Bud Grant was winning but missing a star signal-caller. Grant helped engineer a trade to get Tarkenton back, and he’d lead the Vikings to three Super Bowls in his second stint with the team from 1972-78—none of them victories, however.
Tarkenton retired after the 1978 season, when he was still at a peak after throwing for a career-high 3,468 yards and matching his career best with 25 touchdown passes. At the time, Tarkenton held every major NFL career passing record—as well as the career rushing record for quarterbacks. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986 in his first year of eligibility.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
