Nearly every player that entered professional football from 1960-66 had a decision to make. NFL? Or AFL? Each league had a draft during those years. Most players were selected by both leagues. There was a competition for the players and it turned into a bidding war between the leagues. It was a bidding war that was a big reason, if not the main reason, for the merger agreement in June of 1966. The older league won most of the bidding battles over draft picks but the newer league won enough to get better. It was a tough, draining seven years for both leagues. The merger agreement was a welcome event for pretty much everybody but Al Davis. He wanted the war to continue. So much so, that he continued a personal war with pretty much everyone for the rest of his life. This isn’t about Davis. This is about the 1961 draft of the Minnesota Vikings and it’s remarkable similarity to the 1961 draft of the Boston Patriots. 

The Minnesota Vikings were the older league’s newest team in 1961. Being a new team wasn’t much of a hindrance in any bidding battles over draft picks with the various AFL teams. Everything was new in the AFL. Simply being in the NFL gave the Vikings an edge over any AFL team. About a year ago, I was curious as to which AFL teams the Vikings competed with to sign their top draft picks during those war years. Of course, I started with the 1961 draft and I was immediately surprised by what I found. 

Minnesota Vikings 1961 Draft

1. Tommy Mason, RB, Tulane
2. Rip Hawkins, LB, North Carolina
3. Fran Tarkenton, QB, Georgia

Boston Patriots 1961 Draft

1. Tommy Mason, RB, Tulane
2. Rip Hawkins, LB, North Carolina
3. Dan LaRose, T, Missouri
4. Mike Zeno, G, Virginia Tech
5. Fran Tarkenton, QB, Georgia

I was stunned that I’d never heard about the similarities between the 1961 drafts of the Vikings and the Patriots. Tommy Mason, Rip Hawkins, and Fran Tarkenton were the gems of the Vikings’ first draft. What are the chances that all three are also the gems of another team’s draft? There are just too many variables for this to be a coincidence. My immediate thought was that the lazy Patriots had copied the drafting of my beloved Vikings. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The first six rounds of the 1961 AFL Draft were held November 21-22, 1960. The 1961 NFL Draft was held December 27-28, 1960. If there was any draft copying being done it was the Vikings doing the copying. 

The NFL draft will always be a crapshoot. It was even more so in the 1960s. Scouting and player evaluation wasn’t as thorough or as sophisticated. The drafts were held towards the end of the regular season. There wasn’t time for thorough or sophisticated scouting even if the teams had the means and desire to do so. As a result of the competition for players, there were also some strange tactics taken by both leagues during the seven-year bidding war. The strangest was probably the practice of “babysitting.” Both leagues called it babysitting but it was often more like kidnapping. Teams would “hide” players from the other league as they tried to hammer out the details of a contract. If the league’s were willing to go to those extremes to sign players, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the NFL assigned their newest team to go after the top draft picks of one of the AFL’s teams. I’m not sure the purpose of such a strategy. Maybe the NFL didn’t think that the Patriots had much of a chance to sign Mason, Hawkins, and Tarkenton and wanted to give the expansion team a boost. Who knows? I just know that the similarities between the 1961 drafts of the Vikings and Patriots feel more intentional than coincidental.

I always got the feeling that the NFL wanted to win every signing battle. The AFL just wanted to win enough of them. That sort of balance tends to happen when a new league is trying to gain footing with an older, very established league. 

With the similarities between the 1961 drafts of the Vikings and Patriots, I was curious if there were similarities in the drafts of other teams. I found these.

Dallas Cowboys 1961 Draft

1. Bob Lilly, DT, TCU
2. E.J. Holub, C/LB, Texas Tech

Dallas Texans 1961 Draft

1. E.J. Holub, C/LB, Texas Tech
2. Bob Lilly, DT, TCU

and 

1961 San Francisco 49ers Draft

1. Jimmy Johnson, CB, UCLA
1. Billy Kilmer, QB, UCLA

1961 San Diego Chargers 

4. Jimmy Johnson, CB, UCLA
5. Billy Kilmer, QB, UCLA

Unlike the drafts of the Vikings and Patriots, both of these examples seem to be geographical/regionally inspired.

Perhaps this little draft curiosity between the Vikings and Patriots is something that intrigues only me. I was certainly amazed when I discovered it. All that really matters is that the Vikings signed the first three draft picks in the team’s history. It’s simply a footnote that it was the Patriots that they beat to sign each one. Tommy Mason, Rip Hawkins, and Fran Tarkenton were franchise fixtures for the Vikings’ first several years.