In 1961, the Minnesota Vikings' inaugural season, the team finished 3-11(the regular season was 14 games). A tough year for wins and losses indeed, but there was one bright spot the Vikings discovered, even in the midst of such a rough season.

The Vikings drafted a rookie quarterback from the University of Georgia by the name of Francis Asbury Tarkenton. Tarkenton started 10 games his rookie season and dazzled the NFL world with his - at the time - radically unorthodox style of play. Tarkenton would not simply stay in the pocket like a statue and pass. When the pocket failed, he would run around keeping plays alive, sometimes eventually throwing downfield, and at other times taking off downfield on the run. It was this wide open style, that the "scrambler" would be most noted for.

Tarkenton could beat a defense with his passing (even though he did not possess the most powerful of arms), his feet, and most assuredly with his guile. Quarterbacks called the plays on offense in Tarkenton's time, and being the innovator that he was, he had the Viking offense of the mid-70's operating the "west coast offense" a decade before it was popularized and identified as such, by the San Francisco 49ers under Head Coach Bill Walsh.

Tarkenton would finish his rookie season completing 56.1% of his passes for an average of 142 yards-per-game. He would throw 18 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions and finish the season with a passer rating of 74.7. Tarkenton rushed for an average of five yards-per-carry and 22 yards-per-game. He also rushed for five touchdowns as a rookie. Modest passing numbers for sure, but for a rookie, not bad.

Eventually Tarkenton - in his second stint with the franchise - would start three Super Bowls with the Vikings. Today you can find Tarkenton's bust in Canton, Ohio's NFL Hall of Fame.

Fifty years later in 2011, the Minnesota Vikings appear to be starting over virtually from scratch. At 2-9, the 16-game schedule equivalent of the 1961 season is almost a certainty. In this year's draft the organization again drafted a quarterback from the south just as they did starting out. This time the quarterback was drafted out of Florida State University and he goes by the name of Christian Ponder. Ponder has started five games this year, and barring anything unforeseen - like Tarkenton - will start 10 games his rookie year.

Ponder's style of play is also one where he has the ability to keep plays alive with his feet, while sometimes throwing completions downfield and at other times taking off downfield on the run. Two games ago against the Oakland Raiders, Ponder set the single-game franchise record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 73.

So far on the year, the rookie is completing 54.4% of his passes for an average of 190 yards-per-game. He has passed for six touchdowns and six interceptions and has a passer rating of 72.6. Ponder averages slightly under 8 yards-per-carry and 23 yards rushing-per-game. He has yet to rush for a touchdown. Again, modest passing numbers for sure, but for a rookie, not bad. Fans will have to wait and see what his career may blossom into.

Make no mistake about it, no one is saying that when Ponder retires from the NFL, he will own the all-time NFL records - as did Tarkenton - for most passes attempted, most passes completed, most touchdown passes, most yards passing, and most yards rushing among quarterbacks. When Tarkenton retired, in all fairness, only Johnny Unitas should have been considered as being a possibly greater quarterback than he.

What is interesting to compare, are the remarkable similarities to the quarterback of the 1961 team and the 2011 team. In both quarterbacks a fan can (and did) observe,  that certain competitive fire and "never say die" attitude. An attitude that exudes confidence even while playing on such losing teams.

In four of Ponder's five starts, he rallied the team back in the fourth quarters causing the games to go pretty much down to the wire. In the second half of this past Sunday's 24-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, if a Viking fan - of a certain age of course - were to close his/her eyes they just as easily might have envisioned Fran Tarkenton being the one out there on that field engineering first down after first down, darting here and there, wearing defensive linemen out chasing after the elusive signal caller. The second Viking touchdown was a 39 yard strike on a fourth and thirteen! Classic Tarkenton.

Just as the 1961 Vikings took a number of years to build themselves into a winner, the 2011 Vikings may wind up having to be ground zero for a team eventually being rebuilt into a winner. One thing that was for sure in 1961, and looks like a good possibility in 2011, the rookie starting at quarterback for the Vikings, appears to be a diamond in the rough.