The Minnesota Vikings are headed south in the standings as quarterback J.J. McCarthy plays at a sub-NFL level. The Vikings coach, the local sportswriters, and the local sports broadcasters seem to attribute McCarthy’s poor performance to his youth and inexperience.
They may be right. I don’t know. However, I think back to Fran Tarkenton’s debut with the Vikings in September 1961. It was the Vikings’ first game, period. They were an expansion team manned by castoffs, retreads, and a few good draft choices, of whom the University of Georgia’s Fran Tarkenton was one. The Vikings had drafted him in the third round that year.
The Vikings’ first game took place at the long-gone Metropolitan Stadium (built for baseball, not footaball). In that opening game the Vikings played George Halas’s Chicago Bears. It was a spectacularly beautiful day.
Lynn Johnson was my dad’s first cousin and best friend. Lynn bought season tickets to the Vikings from the git-to. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but Lynn invited me to join him for the Vikings’ season opener agains the Bears.
Vikings coach Norm Van Brocklin started the experienced George Shaw at quarterback. Despite his experience, Shaw was unable to get anything going. The Vikings spun their wheels on offense, as the Vikings did for three quarters against the Bears yesterday.
In the first quarter Van Brocklin pulled Shaw and sent in rookie Fran Tarkenton to replace him. The Vikings’ fortunes rapidly improved. Coming off the bench, Tarkenton led the Vikings to an unlikely 37-13 victory over the Bears. Tarkenton threw for four touchdown and ran for a fifth.
I haven’t seen the local sportswriters recall Tarkenton in this context. I was there. I vividly remember the game. It was thrilling. The highglights of Tarkenton’s performance that day are captured in the first two minutes of the video below. And Tarkenton’s performance in that game was the prologue to a great career.
