Fran Tarkenton

He was born Francis Asbury Tarkenton in Richmond, Virginia, on February 3, 1940. The son of Dallas, a Methodist minister, and Frances Tarkenton, a homemaker, he attended high school in Athens, Georgia, where as a junior he led his football team to the state championships in 1955. During his senior year at Athens High, he was named all-state in not only football, but baseball and basketball as well. After graduation from high school, Tarkenton moved across town to study business administration at the University of Georgia in Athens. He also made a name for himself as starting quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs football team. In his junior year, Tarkenton forever endeared himself to Bulldog fans by tossing a winning touchdown pass in the final seconds of the team's game against Auburn. He led the Bulldogs to a 1959 season record of 10-1 and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) title. As a senior, Tarkenton earned All-American and first team Academic All-American honors, as he captained the Bulldogs to a 6-4 season record. Wallace Butts, Tarkenton's coach at Georgia, once said of his star quarterback: "Tarkenton has no superior as a field general and ball-handler."

Despite his impressive record at Georgia, Tarkenton was not selected until the third round of the NFL draft in 1961, and then by the newly-established Minnesota Vikings franchise. In the Vikings' debut game on September 17, 1961, Tarkenton threw four touchdown passes to lead the Vikings past the Chicago Bears, 37-13. In his first professional season, Tarkenton also established an NFL record for most consecutive completed passes with thirteen in the Vikings' 42-21 win over Los Angeles. For the season as a whole, he passed for a total of 1,997 yards and eighteen touchdowns. In the 1962 season, Tarkenton compiled a pass completion rate of only 49.5 percent—the lowest of his eighteen years in the NFL—with a total of 2,595 yards and twenty-two touchdowns, four of the touchdowns coming in the Vikings' November 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.