Fran Tarkenton
Encyclopedia
Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is a former professional football
player, TV personality, and computer software executive.
He is best known for playing with the Minnesota Vikings
and New York Giants
, as well as serving as a commentator on Monday Night Football
and a co-host of That's Incredible!
. At the time of his retirement he owned every major quarterback record.
Tarkenton also founded Tarkenton Software, a computer-program generator company, and he toured the U.S. promoting CASE (computer-aided software engineering
) with Albert F. Case, Jr.
of Nastec Corporation. Tarkenton Software later merged with KnowledgeWare
(with Tarkenton as president), until selling the company to Sterling Software
in 1994.
. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a pentecostal minister. Fran Tarkenton went to Athens High School
in Athens, Georgia
, and later attended the University of Georgia
, where he was the quarterback on the Bulldog football team
. He led Georgia to the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship under Coach Wally Butts
. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
fraternity.
Also, in Tarkenton's early years he was a member of the Masonic Youth Group DeMolay
.
Tarkenton's first marriage was to Anna Elaine Merrell of Decatur, Georgia
. They wed on December 22, 1960, at First Baptist Church in Decatur.
drafted
Tarkenton in the third round of the 1961 NFL Draft
, and he was picked in the fifth round of the 1961 AFL draft
by the Boston Patriots. He signed with the Vikings. Tarkenton, 21, played his first National Football League
game (and the Vikings' first game) against the Chicago Bears
and led the Vikings to a victory by passing for 250 yards and four touchdown passes as the upstarts stunned the Bears 37–13. He is the only player in NFL history to pass for four touchdowns in his first NFL game.
He played for the Vikings from 1961
to 1966
, during which time he frequently locked horns with head coach Norm Van Brocklin
, who disdained the idea of a mobile quarterback, a concept that Tarkenton dramatically advanced in the NFL. Tarkenton was given the nicknames "The Mad Scrambler," "Frantic Fran," and "Scramblin' Fran" because he frequently ran around in the backfield to avoid being sacked by the opposition (among his other nicknames: "Sir Francis," used occasionally by Howard Cosell
of ABC Sports
).
Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants
in the 1967
for five seasons. His efforts helped the Giants rally from the NFL's basement (a 1-12-1 record in 1966) to better times. In the first game of the 1969
season, Tarkenton's Giants played the Vikings. After trailing 23-10 in the fourth quarter, Tarkenton threw two touchdown passes to secure a 24-23 comeback victory over his former team. The 24 points allowed by Minnesota's defense would be a season-worst for the unit that would finish #1 in dominant fashion.
Tarkenton was traded back to Minnesota in 1972
. He led the Vikings to three Super Bowl
s in the 1970s, but lost all of them. In Tarkenton's first Super Bowl appearance they lost to the Miami Dolphins
24–7 in Houston, they lost the second to the Pittsburgh Steelers
in a defensive struggle 16-6 in New Orleans, and in the last Super Bowl Tarkenton would ever play, the Vikings were blown out by the Oakland Raiders
32-14 at the Rose Bowl
in Pasadena
.
Tarkenton won the NFL's MVP award after the 1975
season, capturing All-Pro
honors in the process. Tarkenton was also second Team All-Pro in 1973 and earned All-NFC selection in 1972 and 1976. He was named second Team All-NFC in 1970 and 1974. Tarkenton was selected to play in nine Pro Bowl
s.
In his 18 NFL seasons, Tarkenton completed 3,686 of 6,467 passes for 47,003 yards and 342 touchdowns, with 266 interceptions. Tarkenton's 47,003 career passing yards rank him 6th all time, while his 342 career passing touchdowns is 4th all time in NFL history. He also is fifth on the all-time list of wins by a starting quarterback
with 124 regular season victories. He also used his impressive scrambling ability to rack up 3,674 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns on 675 carries. During his career, Tarkenton ran for a touchdown in 15 different seasons, an NFL record among quarterbacks. He ranks fourth in career rushing yards among quarterbacks', behind Randall Cunningham
, Steve Young and Michael Vick
. He is also one of two NFL quarterbacks ever to rush for at least 300 yards in seven different seasons; the other is Tobin Rote
. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 1986. Vikings head coach Bud Grant
flatly called Tarkenton "the greatest quarterback who's ever played." When he retired, Tarkenton held NFL career records in pass attempts, completions, yardage, and touchdowns; rushing yards by a quarterback; and wins by a starting quarterback.
However, Tarkenton's poor performance in three Super Bowls and his inability to win a championship ring in 18 seasons prevents some people from considering him as great as other quarterbacks. Despite not winning a Super Bowl, he won six playoff games, and in 1999 he was ranked number 59 on The Sporting News
list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was also known to heave the ball deep on third and long with no regard to an interception. He stated this was due to the great defense his teams had.
One of the more difficult losses of Tarkenton's career occurred during the 1975
NFC Divisional Playoffs. With what was considered by some observers to be the best team of their Purple People Eater era, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys
17-14 on a hail Mary touchdown pass from Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach
to wide receiver Drew Pearson
. The play so incensed the crowd that one fan fired a whiskey bottle from the stands, striking official Armen Terzian
in the head. This was partly responsible for the banning of glass bottles at arenas around the country. Common Vikings folklore blames this incident for many future calls that referees made against the Vikings, and has been termed "Terzian's Revenge". Tarkenton also lost his father, who died while he was watching the game; it had been rumored that the "Hail Mary Pass" caused the cardiac arrest
, but in fact Mr. Tarkenton died during the middle of the third quarter. It was a disappointing end to a spectacular season for the Vikings. They had finished the season with an NFC best 12-2 record and Tarkenton had won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award
, and the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award
.
in 1977, the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 1986, the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1987, and the Athens (GA) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Tarkenton later appeared on the television show That's Incredible!
and also worked part time on Monday Night Football
. He also guest-hosted Saturday Night Live on January 29, 1977.
A biography of Tarkenton titled Better Scramble than Lose was published in 1969. This followed Tarkenton's 1967 autobiography No Time for Losing and preceded by several years his 1977 autobiography Tarkenton co-written with Jim Klobuchar. The autobiographies chronicle not only his football career but also his personal evolution from his early football days as a preacher's son. Tarkenton wrote a book titled Broken Patterns: The Education of a Quarterback, as told to Brock Yates
. It is a chronicle of the 1969 New York Giants season.
In 1986 Tarkenton, with author Herb Resincow, wrote a novel titled Murder at the Super Bowl, the whodunit
story of a football coach killed just before his team is to participate in the championship game.
Tarkenton wrote the self-help, motivational books Playing to Win in 1984, and How to Motivate People: The Team Strategy for Success in 1986. In 1987, Tarkenton hosted a Think and Grow Rich
TV infomercial that sold the book with an audio cassette version (the audio cassettes contained an introduction and conclusion by Tarkenton).
Tarkenton was also a pioneer in computer software, and founder of Tarkenton Software, a program generator company. He toured the United States promoting CASE or "computer-aided software engineering
" with Albert F. Case, Jr.
of Nastec Corporation, but ultimately merged his software firm with James Martin
's KnowledgeWare
, of which Tarkenton was president until selling the company to Sterling Software
in 1994.
Since then, Tarkenton has been seen promoting various products and services including Tony Robbins
and 1-800-BAR-NONE. He also founded GoSmallBiz.com http://www.gosmallbiz.com, a small business consulting website, which is sold exclusively through Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc. His most current company is an annuity marketing firm called Tarkenton Financial.http://www.tarkentonfinancial.com Tarkenton also wrote the motivational self-help business book
titled What Losing Taught Me About Winning,
In 2009, Tarkenton made national news for his harsh criticism of Brett Favre's indecision on whether or not to come out of retirement to play for the Minnesota Vikings. Tarkenton, however, himself was similarly indecisive on his retirement during the last seven years of his playing career. Ironically, Tarkenton forced the Vikings to trade him away in 1967, even though head coach Norm Van Brocklin
, with whom he had had much unhappiness, had already resigned. Tarkenton's departure caused the Vikings to go on a five-year search for a starting quarterback (Joe Kapp
, Gary Cuozzo
, Ron Vander Kelen
, Norm Snead
, and Bob Lee
were all Vikings' starters between 1967 and 1971), before Tarkenton badgered the Giants into trading him back to the Vikings in 1972.
He has on occasion spoken negatively of players in the NFL, most recently Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler
. At no time, however, did he suggest that Cutler wasn't an NFL caliber player, as some have claimed.
Tarkenton, his wife Linda, and daughter Hayley currently reside in the Buckhead Community
of Atlanta, Georgia
. They also enjoy spending time at their home located on the shores of Lake Burton
in Rabun County, Georgia, and playing golf at Waterfall Country Club, which overlooks Lake Burton and the surrounding mountains.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player, TV personality, and computer software executive.
He is best known for playing with the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
and New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, as well as serving as a commentator on Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
and a co-host of That's Incredible!
That's Incredible!
That's Incredible! was an American reality television show that aired on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
. At the time of his retirement he owned every major quarterback record.
Tarkenton also founded Tarkenton Software, a computer-program generator company, and he toured the U.S. promoting CASE (computer-aided software engineering
Computer-aided software engineering
Computer-aided software engineering is the scientific application of a set of tools and methods to a software system which is meant to result in high-quality, defect-free, and maintainable software products...
) with Albert F. Case, Jr.
Albert F. Case, Jr.
Albert F. Case, Jr. is an American software engineer and one of the leaders in the development of Computer-Aided Software Engineering technologies and system development methodologies.- Biography :...
of Nastec Corporation. Tarkenton Software later merged with KnowledgeWare
KnowledgeWare
KnowledgeWare was a software company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia co-founded by James Martin and run by Fran Tarkenton. It produced a Computer Aided Software Engineering tool called IEW...
(with Tarkenton as president), until selling the company to Sterling Software
Sterling Software
Sterling Software was an American software company founded in Dallas, Texas in 1981 by Sterling Williams and brothers Sam and Charles Wyly. The company was acquired by Computer Associates International in 2000 in a stock-for-stock transaction worth $3.3 billion.Computer Associates sold Sterling...
in 1994.
Early life
Fran Tarkenton was born in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a pentecostal minister. Fran Tarkenton went to Athens High School
Clarke Central High School
Clarke Central High School is located in Athens, Georgia. The school was created in 1970 by the merger of two high schools, Athens High School and Burney-Harris High School , as a result of desegregation....
in Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, and later attended the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
, where he was the quarterback on the Bulldog football team
Georgia Bulldogs football
The Georgia Bulldogs football team represents the University of Georgia in football. The Bulldogs are a member of the Southeastern Conference and are frequently a top-25 team. The University of Georgia has had a football team since 1892 and has an all-time record of 738–398–54...
. He led Georgia to the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship under Coach Wally Butts
Wally Butts
James Wallace "Wally" Butts, Jr. was an American football player and coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of Georgia from 1939 to 1960, compiling a record of 140–86–9...
. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South...
fraternity.
Also, in Tarkenton's early years he was a member of the Masonic Youth Group DeMolay
DeMolay International
DeMolay International , founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1919, is an international organization for young men ages 12–21. DeMolay derives its name from Jacques DeMolay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar...
.
Tarkenton's first marriage was to Anna Elaine Merrell of Decatur, Georgia
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...
. They wed on December 22, 1960, at First Baptist Church in Decatur.
Professional football career
The Minnesota VikingsMinnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
drafted
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
Tarkenton in the third round of the 1961 NFL Draft
1961 NFL Draft
The 1961 National Football League Draft took place on December 27–28, 1960. The league would later hold an expansion draft for the Minnesota Vikings expansion franchise, and the Vikings were also awarded the first selection position in this draft. This draft was also the first regular draft for...
, and he was picked in the fifth round of the 1961 AFL draft
1961 American Football League Draft
Because another league was in competition for the class of 1961 college stars, the American Football League draft for 1961 graduates was actually held in 1960, with a six-round telephone draft on November 23, that saw the Denver Broncos select New Mexico State's Bob Gaiters as the overall first...
by the Boston Patriots. He signed with the Vikings. Tarkenton, 21, played his first National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
game (and the Vikings' first game) against the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and led the Vikings to a victory by passing for 250 yards and four touchdown passes as the upstarts stunned the Bears 37–13. He is the only player in NFL history to pass for four touchdowns in his first NFL game.
He played for the Vikings from 1961
1961 NFL season
The 1961 NFL season was the 42nd regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 14 teams with the addition of the Minnesota Vikings, after the team's owners declined to be charter members of the new American Football League. The schedule was also expanded from 12 games per...
to 1966
1966 NFL season
The 1966 NFL season was the 47th regular season of the National Football League, and the season after which was played Super Bowl I, though it was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The league expanded to 15 teams with the addition of the Atlanta Falcons, thus an odd number of teams...
, during which time he frequently locked horns with head coach Norm Van Brocklin
Norm Van Brocklin
Norman Mack "Norm" Van Brocklin , nicknamed "The Dutchman", was an American football player and coach. He was also a first rate punter in college and in the NFL...
, who disdained the idea of a mobile quarterback, a concept that Tarkenton dramatically advanced in the NFL. Tarkenton was given the nicknames "The Mad Scrambler," "Frantic Fran," and "Scramblin' Fran" because he frequently ran around in the backfield to avoid being sacked by the opposition (among his other nicknames: "Sir Francis," used occasionally by Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
of ABC Sports
ESPN on ABC
ESPN on ABC is the brand used for sports programming on the ABC television network. Officially the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, for all practical purposes, ABC's sports division has been merged with ESPN, a sports cable network majority-owned by ABC's parent, The...
).
Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
in the 1967
1967 NFL season
The 1967 NFL season was the 48th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 16 teams with the addition of the New Orleans Saints. The league's teams were realigned into four divisions: the Capitol and Century Divisions in the Eastern Conference, and the Central and...
for five seasons. His efforts helped the Giants rally from the NFL's basement (a 1-12-1 record in 1966) to better times. In the first game of the 1969
1969 NFL season
The 1969 NFL season was the 50th regular season of the National Football League, and the last one before the AFL-NFL Merger. To honor the NFL's 50th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season.As per the...
season, Tarkenton's Giants played the Vikings. After trailing 23-10 in the fourth quarter, Tarkenton threw two touchdown passes to secure a 24-23 comeback victory over his former team. The 24 points allowed by Minnesota's defense would be a season-worst for the unit that would finish #1 in dominant fashion.
Tarkenton was traded back to Minnesota in 1972
1972 NFL season
The 1972 NFL season was the 53rd regular season of the National Football League. The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to finish a championship season undefeated and untied when they beat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.-Major rule changes:...
. He led the Vikings to three Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
s in the 1970s, but lost all of them. In Tarkenton's first Super Bowl appearance they lost to the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
24–7 in Houston, they lost the second to the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
in a defensive struggle 16-6 in New Orleans, and in the last Super Bowl Tarkenton would ever play, the Vikings were blown out by the Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
32-14 at the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
in Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
.
Tarkenton won the NFL's MVP award after the 1975
1975 NFL season
The 1975 NFL season was the 56th regular season of the National Football League. It was also the first time that featured an entire season with no games ending in a tie. The league made two significant changes to increase the appeal of the game:...
season, capturing All-Pro
All-Pro
All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season. It began as polls of sportswriters in the early 1920s...
honors in the process. Tarkenton was also second Team All-Pro in 1973 and earned All-NFC selection in 1972 and 1976. He was named second Team All-NFC in 1970 and 1974. Tarkenton was selected to play in nine Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
s.
In his 18 NFL seasons, Tarkenton completed 3,686 of 6,467 passes for 47,003 yards and 342 touchdowns, with 266 interceptions. Tarkenton's 47,003 career passing yards rank him 6th all time, while his 342 career passing touchdowns is 4th all time in NFL history. He also is fifth on the all-time list of wins by a starting quarterback
Most wins by a starting quarterback (NFL)
In the National Football League the quarterback is the only position player to be credited with a record of wins and losses as a starter. At the time of the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, Johnny Unitas held the record for most regular season wins as a starting quarterback with 103. He retired after the 1973...
with 124 regular season victories. He also used his impressive scrambling ability to rack up 3,674 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns on 675 carries. During his career, Tarkenton ran for a touchdown in 15 different seasons, an NFL record among quarterbacks. He ranks fourth in career rushing yards among quarterbacks', behind Randall Cunningham
Randall Cunningham
Randall W. Cunningham is a former American football quarterback.After playing college football at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he was selected in the second round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he remained through the 1995 season...
, Steve Young and Michael Vick
Michael Vick
Michael Dwayne Vick is an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League...
. He is also one of two NFL quarterbacks ever to rush for at least 300 yards in seven different seasons; the other is Tobin Rote
Tobin Rote
Tobin Cornelius Rote was an American college and professional football player who played quarterback for the NFL's Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, and the American Football League's San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos.-Early life:Rote...
. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
in 1986. Vikings head coach Bud Grant
Bud Grant
Harry Peter "Bud" Grant, Jr is the former longtime American football head coach of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League for eighteen seasons. Grant was the second and fourth head coach of the team...
flatly called Tarkenton "the greatest quarterback who's ever played." When he retired, Tarkenton held NFL career records in pass attempts, completions, yardage, and touchdowns; rushing yards by a quarterback; and wins by a starting quarterback.
However, Tarkenton's poor performance in three Super Bowls and his inability to win a championship ring in 18 seasons prevents some people from considering him as great as other quarterbacks. Despite not winning a Super Bowl, he won six playoff games, and in 1999 he was ranked number 59 on The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was also known to heave the ball deep on third and long with no regard to an interception. He stated this was due to the great defense his teams had.
One of the more difficult losses of Tarkenton's career occurred during the 1975
1975 NFL season
The 1975 NFL season was the 56th regular season of the National Football League. It was also the first time that featured an entire season with no games ending in a tie. The league made two significant changes to increase the appeal of the game:...
NFC Divisional Playoffs. With what was considered by some observers to be the best team of their Purple People Eater era, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
17-14 on a hail Mary touchdown pass from Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach
Roger Staubach
Roger Thomas Staubach is a businessman, Heisman Trophy winner and legendary Hall of Fame former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1969 until 1979. Staubach was instrumental in developing the Cowboys into becoming one of the best teams of the 1970s and led the team to nine of the Cowboys'...
to wide receiver Drew Pearson
Drew Pearson (American football)
Drew Pearson is a sportscaster and former American football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League.-Early years:...
. The play so incensed the crowd that one fan fired a whiskey bottle from the stands, striking official Armen Terzian
Armen Terzian
Armen Terzian was a U.S. American football official in the NFL from 1961 to 1981. He was a field judge and wore uniform number 23, which was later worn by two African-American referees: Johnny Grier and, currently, Jerome Boger...
in the head. This was partly responsible for the banning of glass bottles at arenas around the country. Common Vikings folklore blames this incident for many future calls that referees made against the Vikings, and has been termed "Terzian's Revenge". Tarkenton also lost his father, who died while he was watching the game; it had been rumored that the "Hail Mary Pass" caused the cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
, but in fact Mr. Tarkenton died during the middle of the third quarter. It was a disappointing end to a spectacular season for the Vikings. They had finished the season with an NFC best 12-2 record and Tarkenton had won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award
NFL Most Valuable Player Award
The National Football League Most Valuable Player Award is given by various entities, most notably the Associated Press , to the player who is considered most valuable in the league. When the award is referred to without mentioning the organization, it generally means the AP award. The AP NFL MVP...
, and the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award
NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award
The NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award is given annually by the Associated Press to the offensive player of the National Football League believed to have had the most outstanding season...
.
Post-football life
Tarkenton was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of FameGeorgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1977, the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
in 1986, the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1987, and the Athens (GA) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Tarkenton later appeared on the television show That's Incredible!
That's Incredible!
That's Incredible! was an American reality television show that aired on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
and also worked part time on Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
. He also guest-hosted Saturday Night Live on January 29, 1977.
A biography of Tarkenton titled Better Scramble than Lose was published in 1969. This followed Tarkenton's 1967 autobiography No Time for Losing and preceded by several years his 1977 autobiography Tarkenton co-written with Jim Klobuchar. The autobiographies chronicle not only his football career but also his personal evolution from his early football days as a preacher's son. Tarkenton wrote a book titled Broken Patterns: The Education of a Quarterback, as told to Brock Yates
Brock Yates
Brock Yates is an American journalist and author. He was longtime executive editor of Car and Driver, an American automotive magazine. He was a pit reporter for CBS' coverage of certain NASCAR Sprint Cup series races in the 1980s, including the Daytona 500...
. It is a chronicle of the 1969 New York Giants season.
In 1986 Tarkenton, with author Herb Resincow, wrote a novel titled Murder at the Super Bowl, the whodunit
Whodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
story of a football coach killed just before his team is to participate in the championship game.
Tarkenton wrote the self-help, motivational books Playing to Win in 1984, and How to Motivate People: The Team Strategy for Success in 1986. In 1987, Tarkenton hosted a Think and Grow Rich
Think and Grow Rich
Think and Grow Rich is a motivational personal development and self-help book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion from Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie...
TV infomercial that sold the book with an audio cassette version (the audio cassettes contained an introduction and conclusion by Tarkenton).
Tarkenton was also a pioneer in computer software, and founder of Tarkenton Software, a program generator company. He toured the United States promoting CASE or "computer-aided software engineering
Computer-aided software engineering
Computer-aided software engineering is the scientific application of a set of tools and methods to a software system which is meant to result in high-quality, defect-free, and maintainable software products...
" with Albert F. Case, Jr.
Albert F. Case, Jr.
Albert F. Case, Jr. is an American software engineer and one of the leaders in the development of Computer-Aided Software Engineering technologies and system development methodologies.- Biography :...
of Nastec Corporation, but ultimately merged his software firm with James Martin
James Martin (author)
James Martin is a British Information Technology consultant and author, who was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for his book, The Wired Society: A Challenge for Tomorrow .- Biography :...
's KnowledgeWare
KnowledgeWare
KnowledgeWare was a software company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia co-founded by James Martin and run by Fran Tarkenton. It produced a Computer Aided Software Engineering tool called IEW...
, of which Tarkenton was president until selling the company to Sterling Software
Sterling Software
Sterling Software was an American software company founded in Dallas, Texas in 1981 by Sterling Williams and brothers Sam and Charles Wyly. The company was acquired by Computer Associates International in 2000 in a stock-for-stock transaction worth $3.3 billion.Computer Associates sold Sterling...
in 1994.
Since then, Tarkenton has been seen promoting various products and services including Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins
Anthony "Tony" Robbins is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within...
and 1-800-BAR-NONE. He also founded GoSmallBiz.com http://www.gosmallbiz.com, a small business consulting website, which is sold exclusively through Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc. His most current company is an annuity marketing firm called Tarkenton Financial.http://www.tarkentonfinancial.com Tarkenton also wrote the motivational self-help business book
titled What Losing Taught Me About Winning,
In 2009, Tarkenton made national news for his harsh criticism of Brett Favre's indecision on whether or not to come out of retirement to play for the Minnesota Vikings. Tarkenton, however, himself was similarly indecisive on his retirement during the last seven years of his playing career. Ironically, Tarkenton forced the Vikings to trade him away in 1967, even though head coach Norm Van Brocklin
Norm Van Brocklin
Norman Mack "Norm" Van Brocklin , nicknamed "The Dutchman", was an American football player and coach. He was also a first rate punter in college and in the NFL...
, with whom he had had much unhappiness, had already resigned. Tarkenton's departure caused the Vikings to go on a five-year search for a starting quarterback (Joe Kapp
Joe Kapp
Joseph Robert Kapp is a former professional American and Canadian football quarterback. He is also a former college football head coach of the University of California, and a former general manager of the CFL's BC Lions. Kapp played primarily with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the CFL's BC Lions...
, Gary Cuozzo
Gary Cuozzo
Gary Samuel Cuozzo was a former professional American football player. An undrafted quarterback from the University of Virginia, Cuozzo played in 10 NFL seasons from 1963-1972. He began his NFL career on the Baltimore Colts as a backup to Johnny Unitas...
, Ron Vander Kelen
Ron Vander Kelen
Ronald Vander Kelen is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League. He played at the collegiate level at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is best-known for his MVP performance in the 1963 Rose Bowl, where he broke numerous Rose Bowl records, some of which still...
, Norm Snead
Norm Snead
Norman Bailey Snead is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and San Francisco 49ers. He played college football for Wake Forest University and was drafted in the first round of...
, and Bob Lee
Bob Lee (American football)
Robert Melville Lee is a former professional American football player. He graduated from Lowell High School in 1963. Nicknamed "General" Bob Lee during a brief period of success with the Atlanta Falcons, Lee was selected in the 17th round by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1968 NFL Draft...
were all Vikings' starters between 1967 and 1971), before Tarkenton badgered the Giants into trading him back to the Vikings in 1972.
He has on occasion spoken negatively of players in the NFL, most recently Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler
Jay Cutler (American football)
Jay Christopher Cutler is a quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He played football at Vanderbilt University. Cutler began his professional football career with the Denver Broncos, who selected him as the 11th overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft...
. At no time, however, did he suggest that Cutler wasn't an NFL caliber player, as some have claimed.
Tarkenton, his wife Linda, and daughter Hayley currently reside in the Buckhead Community
Buckhead (Atlanta)
Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
of Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. They also enjoy spending time at their home located on the shores of Lake Burton
Lake Burton (Georgia)
Lake Burton is a 2,775 acre reservoir with 62 miles of shoreline located in the northeastern corner of Georgia in Rabun County. It is the first lake in a six-lake series called the Tallulah River Watershed that follows the original course of the Tallulah River...
in Rabun County, Georgia, and playing golf at Waterfall Country Club, which overlooks Lake Burton and the surrounding mountains.
See also
- History of the New York Giants (1925-1978)
- Most consecutive starts by a quarterback (NFL)Most consecutive starts by a quarterback (NFL)This is a list of the most consecutive starts by a quarterback in the NFL. Only six quarterbacks in NFL history have been able to achieve regular season streaks of at least 100 games, with only two of those with a regular season streak of at least 200 games....
Further reading
Book-length biography of Fran Tarkenton.- Tarkenton, Fran and Bruton, Jim, (2009). Every Day Is Game Day, Triumph Books, ISBN 1600782531 [Autobiography of Fran Tarkenton]
External links
- Fran Tarkenton.com - official web site
- College Football Hall of Fame - Fran Tarkenton
- Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
- Fran Tarkenton (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- Football card gallery.com - Fran Tarkenton
- Fran Tarkenton Career Publications - VikingsCards.com