Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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As the 1950s were coming to a close, the Lakers were preparing to head to Los Angeles while Winter and other businessmen in the Twin Cities were trying to bring professional football back for the first time since 1930.
Mohs, the early NFLer who gave Hartman the recommendation for the writing gig, became general manager of the Lakers from 1960-67, leading the team as it transitioned from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
Minnesota was granted a football franchise by the upstart American Football League, but team organizers reversed course once offered a spot in the NFL in January 1960.
Grant was on the list to become the team's first head coach, but turned it down.
"I looked at the team and the roster and everything, [and thought] 'I can't,' " Grant said. "Not that I'm an expert at any of that, but I looked at it, and in my opinion, 'I'm going to go down there for two or three years, accumulate some players and get fired. I've got a great job in Winnipeg, had just won the national championship.'
Hartman said: "I talked to him about it, and he was loving Winnipeg and the hunting and fishing up there. I didn't think it was a good situation for him. They had an expansion team and didn't get very many good players."
Norm Van Brocklin instead became the first head coach of the Vikings on Jan. 18, 1961, three weeks after the team's first draft and eight days before the expansion draft.
After six seasons, the Vikings again reached out to hire Grant, whom General Manager Jim Finks knew from their overlap in the CFL.
"Max Winter called and said I'd like you to interview. Sid was in the background of that," Grant said. "Max said, 'He turned us down once. Why would I offer him a job?' Sid said, 'Do it.' I don't know. I'm not privy to that inside conversation, but I know that was one of Sid's phrases, 'Just do it.' Jim Finks offered me the job."
Grant's return to the market as head coach of the Vikings team that Hartman was covering didn't hurt their friendship.
"I still kept my job as a newspaper man," Hartman said. "I didn't treat him better than anybody else. In fact, I scooped him. He didn't mind. He knew I had my job.
"Some of those writers were a little envious of me," Hartman added. "They thought I was getting all of the stories, and one of the writers asked him, 'What do you think of Sid Hartman as a writer?' He said, 'I tell you what, I trust him with my life.' That shut them off."
Grant began his Vikings tenure in March 1967, days after Tarkenton had been traded to the New York Giants. The Vikings brought Joe Kapp down from the CFL to play quarterback. Kapp's feistiness matched the emerging defensive dominance, helping the 1969 team win the NFL Championship and advance to Super Bowl IV.
When the Vikings celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1969 team last fall, Gene Washington recalled taking a call from Minnesota while standing in the Michigan State athletics building in 1967.
" 'Congratulations, Gene, you've been drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Vikings,' " Washington recalled the voice on the other end saying. " 'I know that you've got to be excited because you're going to Minnesota … Bud is going to be down and be your head coach. We're so happy that Bud is coming and you're coming.'
"I said, 'Who am I talking to?' And he said, 'Sid Hartman,' " said Washington, who still lives in Minnesota.
Hartman, who had previously covered what became known as Super Bowl I, began a streak of attending every Super Bowl played from 1970 to 2001, with the exception of the games in 1990 and 1993.
Tarkenton returned to Minnesota in 1972 and led Minnesota to three Super Bowl appearances in four seasons on the way to setting multiple passer records.
Hartman, of course, had stayed connected with Tarkenton during his years with the Giants.
"Sid was always talking to Francis, 'There's a place here in Minnesota for you. You and Bud would get along fine. Keep it in the back of your mind.'
"Sid's always way ahead of most people with intuitiveness that he has," Grant said. "He's ahead of most people and is thinking not today but tomorrow or down the line."
Grant totaled 11 division titles and four Super Bowl appearances in his 18 seasons with the Vikings, and Hartman covered them all.
The morning of Super Bowl XI, where the media contingency covering the game had mushroomed to 2,000 in the Los Angeles area from 400 or so in Houston for Super Bowl VIII, Hartman quoted Grant about his desire to win one for Winter, who was the Vikings President from 1965-87.
"You never know when you'll get back here again," Grant told Hartman, perhaps sensing the end of a golden era for the Purple.
The Vikings have come close multiple times but have not been to the big one since January 1977, just two months before Hartman turned 57.