Fran Tarkenton

Fran Tarkenton

Tarkenton in January 2010
No. 10
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1940-02-03) February 3, 1940 (age 77)
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
Minnesota Vikings (1961–1966) New York Giants (1967–1971) Minnesota Vikings (1972–1978)
Career highlights and awards
9× Pro Bowl (1964, 1966–1970, 1974–1976) First-team All-Pro (1975) Second-team All-Pro (1973) NFL Most Valuable Player (1975) NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1975) NFC Player of the Year (1975) Bert Bell Award (1975) NFL passing yards leader (1978) NFL passing touchdowns leader (1975) Minnesota Vikings No. 10 retired Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor
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
Pro Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame

Francis Asbury 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.

Fran Tarkenton was born on February 3, 1940, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a Methodist 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 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.