By Cliff Buchan

Special to the Advocate

As the calendar turned to August, athletes in high schools across Minnesota were back in action with organized team practices. By the end of the month, the allure of Friday night lights will excite football players, fans and communities.

It’s been this way in Minnesota for decades. For many of the boys who pull on the pads and helmets, it will be a time to form bonds with teammates who will be brothers for life while competing in a sport they love. For some, there is an inner drive and aspiration to become the best of the best with the goal of moving on to play football in college and beyond.

Many of Minnesota’s fall athletes will make the grade in colleges at various levels of competition. Making it to the professional ranks is something else. It is a rare achievement.

Football fans in Otter Tail County and all of the state, for that, cheered for Adam Thielen after he came out of Detroit Lakes High School and Minnesota State University Mankato to carve a wonderful career with the Minnesota Vikings and now the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. He was an undrafted college free agent who never let his dream vanish. From the practice squad to playing on special teams to becoming a star receiver racking up nearly 8,000 yards in receiving while scoring 59 touchdowns in 10 years in the NFL, nine with Minnesota.

Thielen’s story stands out for football fans of today, but there are others from years ago who made the climb from high school to college and on to the professional ranks.

Long-time Viking fans certainly remember Gary Larsen of Purple People Eaters fame in the 1960s and 1970s. Larsen came out of Moorhead State Teachers College High School in 1957 and starred at Concordia College in Moorhead during two college stints interrupted by two years in the United States Marines. Larsen also played three years of college basketball.

He was drafted in 1964 by the Los Angeles Rams where he was a backup defensive tackle before being traded to the Vikings where he played the next nine years alongside Carl Eller, Alan Page and Jim Marshall on the defensive line. Larsen played in three Super Bowls. Getting his start on an eight-man team in high school was no deterrent for Larsen. Retirement finds Larsen in the state of Washington.

The same start could be said for Jim Christopherson, a graduate of Henning High School in 1956 who played prep football starting with a six-man team. He was a five-year letter winner in football and also earned letters in basketball, baseball and track and field. When Henning formed its first wrestling team in 1953-54, he wrestled a number of matches at heavyweight.

His success at Henning carried him to Concordia in Moorhead where he starred in football. He earned a teaching degree at Concordia, but did not lose sight of playing professionally. He signed as a free agent with the New York Giants in the fall of 1960, but was released at the end of training came. He spent the next year teaching in the small town of Brooten. As the Minnesota Vikings were arriving in 1961, Christopherson earned a spot with the Vikings on the practice squad as a kicker and linebacker.

By fall 1962, he was promoted to the regular roster as the team’s place kicker and backup linebacker. He led the Vikings in scoring in 1962 with 61 points. He lost his job in 1963 when the Vikings brought in Fred Cox who was the Vikings’ kicker for the next 15 seasons. He would play one more season. He spent the 1964 season in the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts before retiring.

Christopherson’s life in football was far from over. Back in Minnesota, he was hired as an assistant coach at Concordia where his ties were still deep. He held that title for six years before being named head coach in 1969. For the next 32 years Christopherson would coach the Cobbers to 216 wins, 11 conference titles and two Division III national championships. He retired in 2001.

Christopherson still maintains his Otter Tail County ties. He maintains a home in Moorhead, but has a home on East Battle Lake not far from the family farm just outside Vining where he was the youngest of 10 Christopherson siblings.

As high school kids this month begin the fall season of this chapter of their life, they should not discount the dreams of doing something bigger and better. Just remember Thielen, Larsen and Christopherson who proved what is nearly impossible possible.

– The writer is author of two books on Henning athletic history: “Henning’s Orange and Black,” and “Henning’s Gridiron Giants.”