Thread: A word with Fred Zamberletti

Taken from the article "Grimsley should not be cashing in"

Grand Forks Herald
Posted on Wed, Jun. 14, 2006

[size=18px]A word with Fred[/size]

Over the past few weeks, Fred Zamberletti has watched the Vikings take part in "organized team activities," which really are practices. Anyway, of the thousands of Vikings practices since their inception in 1961, Zamberletti estimates he has missed only about half a dozen. The Vikings' trainer through most of their existence, he is the only person on the planet to attend every home and road game the team has played. Zamberletti is listed as the Vikings' senior consultant/team historian. Here's Zamberletti ...

• On the toughest Viking of all time: "Jim Marshall. There are several tough Vikings - Marshall, Karl Kassulke, Bill Brown. They're some pretty tough guys. They'd play through the pain and play well. Those guys were all unusual. To have the record Marshall had, to play all those years and start every single game, he had to play with injuries. Back in those days, they didn't have a lot of the things they have today. You didn't have the anti-inflammatory medications. You didn't have the surgical procedures to take care of things. Nor did you have the technology to diagnose like you have today."

• On which former Viking had an injury that cut short what could have been an outstanding career: "Tommy Mason. He was the team's first-ever draft pick. He hurt his knees back in the day when they didn't have that technology. He was a great running back, but he was never able to reach his full potential."

• On which games stand out: "I think beating Dallas in that (1973) NFC championship game after going in as a heavy underdog, as well as beating the Rams out there (in Los Angeles in 1977) in the rainstorm. It got Chuck Knox fired the next day. We just weren't supposed to win those games. There also was the Cleveland game (in 1980) when Ahmad Rashad made the great catch. And beating New Orleans (in the 1987 postseason) after backing into the playoffs."

• On the Vikings' best team: "I thought the best team we had was in '72 when our defense was real young and hitting anything that moved. We didn't have the great back. Chuck Foreman came the next year. Fran Tarkenton had just returned. We lost a lot of games that were just flukes (and finished 7-7). The only team that really beat us that year was Green Bay. (The Packers won 23-7; six of the Vikings' seven losses were by three or fewer points.) That was the year Bob Lurtsema roughed up Bob Griese when Miami went undefeated. The game was won. We couldn't lose the game, and he gets that penalty to give them the ball. We should have never lost that game."

A word with Fred

It sucks that we could have screwed up Miami's "perfect" season and that Lurtsema screwed it up!

Nice take. I was 9 yrs old that year and know I watched all the games...but I don't remember Lurtsema screwing up the W against the Fins.

"Prophet" wrote:

Nice take. I was 9 yrs old that year and know I watched all the games...but I don't remember Lurtsema screwing up the W against the Fins.

Fred may be old, but he has a memory like a steal trap.

A co-worker of mine was in Mexico earlier this year & Fred was also vacationing down there. She spent a lot of time chatting with him & said he has stories galore to tell.

That is when Childress was axing Tices coaching staff & he told her he didn't even know if he had a job when he got back.