Sid Hartman: Fran Tarkenton recalls Vikings' glory days

The Vikings, led by rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton, beat the Bears 37-13 in their first game played at Metropolitan Stadium. While he is honored by the team as it celebrates its 50th anniversary Sunday, it's ironic that another rookie QB, Joe Webb, will face the Bears outdoors again Monday night at TCF Bank Stadium.

Tarkenton, who will be honored as one of the 50 greatest Vikings on Sunday night at the Minneapolis Convention Center, was the big star when they upset the Bears in 1961. He was 17-for-23 in passing for 250 yards and four touchdowns.

"It's one of the most historic upsets in the history of football," recalled Tarkenton. "Because we were an expansion team -- which meant that our players came from the other teams. The other teams could freeze 34 of their 40 players, we got to pick three of the bottom six. That was our roster. No new franchise team had come in and won a game in the first year, much less the first game."

Tarkenton recalled the Vikings losing five exhibition games -- including one to the Bears in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by four touchdowns.

"And on that historic day, September 17, 1961, we played the Bears, the most successful team in football," Tarkenton remembered. "They were coached, general managed and owned by George Halas, who is the founder of the National Football League, and they'd been together for years and we'd been together for about seven weeks. And we beat them, as you well know, 37-17! Unheard of. With a 21-year-old rookie quarterback, that's what started it all."

Tarkenton said he won't forget the team's first training camp under coach Norm Van Brocklin.

"The foundation [for the Vikings] was built 50 years ago and we went to Bemidji to train and we built that foundation on hard solid rock with great leaders. And two of the most important leaders of that era were Grady Alderman and Jim Marshall. We struggled as an expansion team, but this team has had a great history. When Bud [Grant] came and really turned the whole thing around and we went to four of the first 11 Super Bowls. This is a franchise that has a storied, storied history of great teams and great personalities and great players, and that's going to be the celebration there [Sunday], and I'm looking forward to it."

"I didn't want to leave and you know the circumstances better than anybody," Tarkenton said. "I didn't want to leave. I just couldn't play for Van Brocklin any more. I told him I couldn't play there and they fired him. And then [general manager] Jim Finks and [co-owner] Bernie Ridder wanted me to meet them in Chicago to have me stay, and I said, 'I can't stay now. You've made your bed. You said Van Brocklin was your coach and I respected that.' And I left and went to New York. I was so glad when [team President] Max Winter, Jim Finks and Bud Grant brought me back five years later and to go play with a lot of the same teammates I left."

Tarkenton is a great admirer of Grant. In fact, he initially turned down the invitation to the banquet, but one call from Grant changed his mind.

"Bud turned that franchise around. He's the most important Viking of all," Tarkenton said. "He took us from a struggling, struggling franchise to a very rock-solid football team."

This year a struggle One of the Vikings' most puzzling seasons was 1972, the first year Tarkenton came back from the Giants, and the team finished 7-7. The previous four seasons, they were 11-3, 12-2, 10-4 and 12-2. After '72, they were 11-3, 12-2 and 12-2.

"It was the craziest year that I've ever seen and it just, you're right, it made no sense at all," Tarkenton said. "Then we came back and we go 12-2 or 13-1 and we won the division championship six straight times and went to three Super Bowls in the next six years and should have gone to five."

"We should have won all three of ours and the reason we didn't win them, I didn't get enough points on the board for us," he said. "I take responsibility for that. I don't grieve. If I could have done more things, played better, got more points for us, we would have won. I don't think they were better teams than we were. I think we could have beaten all three teams and we beat them all before and after that. But we didn't those particular days. But the teams of that era, we were the dominating team of the '70s in the entire league, and we had great players and we had great coaches and I'll never forget my years there with Bud Grant and Jerry Burns."

"This year's team never got it going. Every year is different, and most of us couldn't even play at age 40, yet Brett Favre was trying to play at age 41. He was injured most of the year and tried to play through it, but it never came together. I don't think the NFC North is very strong this year, and I don't think Green Bay will even make the playoffs. It's a shame because I think this Vikings roster this year and last year was the best in football."

JottingsThe Austin American-Statesman newspaper in Texas reports that ex-Gophers football coach Tim Brewster is pursuing the head coaching job at Texas State. ... Northern Illinois interim coach Tom Matukewicz will not join Jeff Kill with the Gophers, but will stay and receive some type of promotion after Wisconsin assistant Dave Doeren takes over the job.

Chris Kluwe, who is having a great year punting for the Vikings, said he isn't looking forward to kicking in TCF Bank Stadium on Monday night. "It's not so much the cold as the wind," Kluwe said. "The ball is not going to go as far since the air is obviously colder and it's not going to travel as much, but the wind is what really screws up punting."

Former Gophers interim football coach Jeff Horton spent his final day on the job Thursday visiting with Vikings coaches before leaving for his home in Las Vegas.