Fran Tarkenton

For the episode of Weeds named after this person, see Weeds (season 6).
Fran Tarkenton

Tarkenton in January 2010 after a speech by General David Petraeus in Atlanta, Georgia

Tarkenton in January 2010
No. 10
Position: Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth: (1940-02-03) February 3, 1940
Place of birth: Richmond, Virginia
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight: 190 lb (86 kg)
Career information
High school: Athens (GA)
College: Georgia
NFL Draft: 1961 / Round: 3 / Pick: 29
AFL draft: 1961 / Round: 5 / Pick: 34
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Pass attempts: 6,467
Pass completions: 3,686
Percentage: 57.0
TD–INT: 342–266
Passing yards: 47,003
Passer rating: 80.4
Player stats at NFL.com

Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is a former National Football League (NFL) quarterback, television personality, and computer software executive. He played in the NFL for 18 seasons and spent the majority of his career with the Minnesota Vikings.

Tarkenton's tenure with the Vikings spanned 14 non-consecutive seasons, playing with the team for six seasons from 1961 to 1966, and then for seven seasons from 1972 to 1978. In between his years in Minnesota, Tarkenton was a member of the New York Giants for four seasons. At the time of his retirement, Tarkenton owned every major quarterback record. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

In addition to his football career, Tarkenton served as a commentator on Monday Night Football and a co-host of That's Incredible!. He 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.

Early life

Fran Tarkenton was born on February 3, 1940, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a Methodist minister.[1] 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 and a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Under Coach Wally Butts and with Tarkenton as QB, Georgia won the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship .

Professional football career

The Minnesota Vikings 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) on September 17 against the Chicago Bears coming off the bench to lead the Vikings to a come-from-behind victory by passing for 250 yards and four touchdown passes and running for another[2] as the Vikings defeated the Bears 37–13. He was the only player in NFL history to pass for four touchdowns in his first NFL game, until the feat was repeated by Marcus Mariota in the Tennessee Titans' 2015 season opener versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.[3]

Tarkenton scrambling (1974)

He played for the Vikings from 1961 to 1966.

Tarkenton was traded to the New York Giants in 1967, at which time he moved to the New York City suburb of New Rochelle, New York.[4] 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.[5] The 24 points allowed by Minnesota's defense were a season-worst for the unit.[6]

Tarkenton was traded back to Minnesota in 1972, for three players plus a first and second round draft choice.[7] He led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in the 1970s, but lost all of them. In Tarkenton's first Super Bowl appearance his team lost to the Miami Dolphins 24–7 in Houston. It lost the second to the Pittsburgh Steelers 16–6 in New Orleans, and in the last Super Bowl Tarkenton played (and Minnesota's last Super Bowl to date), the Vikings lost to the Oakland Raiders 32–14 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

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 8th all time, while his 342 career passing touchdowns is 6th all time in NFL history.[8] He also is 6th 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. 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.

Tarkenton launching a forward pass (1965)

The Vikings finished the 1975 season with an NFC-best 12–2 record and Tarkenton won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award while capturing All-Pro honors in the process. He was also a second-team All-Pro in 1973 and earned All-NFC selections in 1972 and 1976. He was named second-team All-NFC in 1970 and 1974. Tarkenton was selected to play in nine Pro Bowls.[9]

Tarkenton was indecisive on his retirement during the last seven years of his playing career.[10][11]

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.

Tarkenton was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1977,[12] the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986,[9] the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987,[13] and the Athens, Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.[14]

Books

A biography of Tarkenton titled Better Scramble than Lose was published in 1969.[15] 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 co-wrote with Brock Yates a book in 1971 titled Broken Patterns: The Education of a Quarterback, a chronicle of the 1970 New York Giants season.[16]

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.[17]

Tarkenton wrote the self-help, motivational books Playing to Win in 1984,[18] and How to Motivate People: The Team Strategy for Success in 1986.[19] He also wrote the motivational self-help business book titled What Losing Taught Me About Winning,[1] and Every Day is Game Day.[20] 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).[21]

Business ventures and investments

Mark McCormack helped Tarkenton invest, making him wealthy enough to "retire this week if [he] wanted to", as New York magazine wrote in 1971.[22] Tarkenton was 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.

In 1999, Tarkenton was fined by federal regulators as part of a securities fraud sweep. According to the LA Times, "In Tarkenton's case, the Hall of Fame quarterback and 10 other former executives of his computer software and consulting firm, KnowledgeWare Inc., were accused of inflating by millions of dollars the company's earnings in reports for its fiscal year ended June 30, 1994. The former Minnesota Vikings quarterback agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and $54,187 in restitution. He did not admit any wrongdoing".[23]

Since then, Tarkenton has been promoting various products and services including Tony Robbins and 1-800-BAR-NONE. He also founded GoSmallBiz, a small-business consulting website. He also operates an annuity marketing firm called Tarkenton Financial.

Politics

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, Tarkenton gave a speech endorsing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.[24]

NFL career statistics

Legend
Led the league
AP NFL MVP
Bold Career high
Year Team G W-L-T Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Lng Y/A Rate 4QC GWD
1961 MIN 14 2-8-0 157 280 56.1 1,997 18 17 71 7.1 74.7
1962 MIN 14 2-11-1 163 329 49.5 2,595 22 25 89 7.9 66.9
1963 MIN 14 4-8-1 170 297 57.2 2,311 15 15 67 7.8 78.0 2 2
1964 MIN 14 8-5-1 171 306 55.9 2,506 22 11 64 8.2 91.8 3 3
1965 MIN 14 7-7-0 171 329 52.0 2,609 19 11 72 7.9 83.8 2 2
1966 MIN 14 4-7-1 192 358 53.6 2,561 17 16 68 7.2 73.8 2 1
1967 NYG 14 7-7-0 204 377 54.1 3,088 29 19 70 8.2 85.9 2 2
1968 NYG 14 7-7-0 182 337 54.0 2,555 21 12 84 7.6 84.6 1 2
1969 NYG 14 6-8-0 220 409 53.8 2,918 23 8 65 7.1 87.2 4 4
1970 NYG 14 9-5-0 219 389 56.3 2,777 19 12 59 7.1 82.2 2 5
1971 NYG 13 4-9-0 226 386 58.5 2,567 11 21 81 6.7 65.4 1 1
1972 MIN 14 7-7-0 215 378 56.9 2,651 18 13 76 7.0 80.2 4 3
1973 MIN 14 12-2-0 169 274 61.7 2,113 15 7 54 7.7 93.2 1 1
1974 MIN 13 9-4-0 199 351 56.7 2,598 17 12 80 7.4 82.1 1 1
1975 MIN 14 12-2-0 273 425 64.2 2,994 25 13 46 7.0 91.8 1 1
1976 MIN 13 10-2-1 255 412 61.9 2,961 17 8 56 7.2 89.3 1 3
1977 MIN 9 6-3-0 155 258 60.1 1,734 9 14 59 6.7 69.2 1 2
1978 MIN 16 8-7-1 345 572 60.3 3,468 25 32 58 6.1 68.9 2 1
Career 246 124-109-6 3,686 6,467 57.0 47,003 342 266 89 7.3 80.4 30 34
13 yrs MIN 177 91-73-6 2,635 4,569 57.7 33,098 239 194 89 7.2 80.1 20 20
5 yrs NYG 69 33-36-0 1,051 1,898 55.4 13,905 103 72 84 7.3 81.0 10 14

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Tarkenton Fran. What Losing Taught Me About Winning: The Ultimate Guide for Success in Small and Home-Based Businesses ; Fireside Books; 1997; ISBN 0-684-83879-6
  2. ↑ "Countdown to the 2013 NFL Draft". National Football League. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ "A Look at Marcus Mariota's Rookie Accomplishments" by Jim Wyatt, Titans online, December 31, 2015
  4. ↑ Kriegel, Mark. Namath:A Biography; Penguin Books; 2005; ISBN 978-0143035350; p.210
  5. ↑ "Minnesota Vikings at New York Giants - September 21st, 1969", Pro-Football-Reference.com
  6. ↑ "1969 Minnesota Vikings", Pro-Football-Reference.com
  7. ↑ "Scramble Back To The Deep Purple", Sports Illustrated, February 7, 1971
  8. ↑ "Manning Passes Tarkenton with 343rd Career TD", Sports Illustrated, 2009-10-11, retrieved 2009-10-12
  9. 1 2 Tarkenton, Professional Football Hall of Fame website
  10. ↑ "Tarkenton Has Retired, Giants Say", Chicago Tribune, Αugust 10, 1971
  11. ↑ Quote Of The Day, The Ledger, March 22, 1978
  12. ↑ Inductees, Georgia Hall of Fame website
  13. ↑ Inductees, College Football Hall of Fame website
  14. ↑ 2000 Inductees, Athens Hall of Fame website
  15. ↑ Olsen, Jack. Better Scramble Than Lose; Four Winds Press; 1969
  16. ↑ Tarkenton, Fran & Brock W. Yates. Broken Patterns: The Education of a Quarterback; Simon and Schuster, 1971, ISBN 978-0671210533
  17. ↑ Tarkenton, Fran & Herb Resincow. Murder at the Super Bowl; William Morrow & Co; 1st edition : October 1986; ISBN 978-0688067168
  18. ↑ Tarkenton, Fran, Playing to Win, 1985, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-25079-5
  19. ↑ Tarkenton, Fran and Tuleja, Tad 1986, Harper and Row ISBN 0-06-015543-4
  20. ↑ Tarkenton, Fran and Bruton, Jim. Every Day Is Game Day; Triumph Books; 2009; ISBN 1-60078-253-1
  21. ↑ "Partners in Time : Guthy-Renker, Charles Wesley Orton", Response magazine, May 2001
  22. ↑ Axthelm, Pete. ""The Third Annual Permanent Retirement of Joe Namath", New York magazine, July 7, 1971, pp.47-49
  23. ↑ LA Times, September 29, 1999
  24. ↑ "Vikings veteran Fran Tarkenton speaks at Republican convention", Star Tribune, July 21, 2016

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