53 years ago yesterday, the Minnesota Vikings played their first regular season game. They were an expansion team filled with youngsters and castoffs and their coach had never before coached a football game. Norm Van Brocklin had just come off an MVP season and Hall of Fame career when he was hired as the Vikings first head coach. They also had the grand fortune of facing the George Halas-led Chicago Bears. A team that had been around since the very beginning of the league. The Bears were coming off a rough 5-6-1 season in 1960 but they were the Chicago Bears. The first game in Minnesota Vikings franchise history was supposed to be a laugher. Actually, it was. But, not in the way that anyone expected. The Vikings thrashed the big, bad Bears 37-13.
Van Brocklin had tapped veteran George Shaw as his starting quarterback. Leaving rookie Fran Tarkenton on the bench to watch and learn. Former San Francisco 49ers star halfback Hugh McElhenny was the biggest name in the Vikings offense and probably on the entire team. End Bob Schnelker was a respected player that had come over from the New York Giants. Tarkenton, and fellow rookies HB Tommy Mason, LB Rip Hawkins, and DB Ed Sharockman would one day be franchise cornerstones but on this they were only youngsters with some talent for the game. The 1961 Bears were trying to claw back to contender status. They were certainly on the right track as they would win an NFL title two years later. Much of the talent on that 1963 Championship team was on the 1961 team.
There were 32,236 in attendance for the regular season debut of the Vikings at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. Shaw didn't last long as he completed two of three passes for 22 yards. The rookie Tarkenton replaced him. The Vikings scored the only points of the first quarter. Mike Mercer scored the first points in Vikings with a 12-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead. In the second quarter, Tarkenton connected with Schnelker on 14-yard scoring pass. There's the first touchdown in Vikings franchise history. The Bears responded with a three-yard Rick Casares touchdown run. The missed extra point made it 10-6 at the half. In the second half, Tarkenton and his merry band of youngsters, has-beens, and never-weres started having some fun. Touchdown passes to Jerry Reichow, McElhenny, and Dave Middleton were sandwiched around a Tarkenton one-yard touchdown run. The Vikings rattled off 27 unanswered points. The Bears finished up the scoring with a late 10-yard Bill Wade to Willie Gallimore touchdown pass. The expansion Vikings beat the 41-year old Bears 37-13 on September 17, 1961.
The Vikings went through the rest of their 1961 regular schedule much like an expansion teams, finishing the season at 3-11. The Bears played better as the year went on as they ended the season with an 8-6 record. They were clearly a team on the rise. On September 17, 1961, nothing seemed as it should. The Vikings thumped the Bears in perhaps the best debut game in league history for an expansion team.
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