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Fran Tarkenton

Shines In Pro Bowl Play

In 1963, Tarkenton threw for 2,311 yards and fifteen touchdowns. The following season, he passed for a total of 2,506 yards and twenty-two touchdowns, winning himself a berth in the Pro Bowl as a reserve quarterback. He took MVP honors at the Pro Bowl when he completed eight of thirteen passes for 172, leading the West to a 34-14 win. After throwing for 2,609 yards and nineteen touchdowns in the regular 1965 season, Tarkenton was again tapped for the Pro Bowl. In 1966, what was to be his last season for the Vikings for six years, Tarkenton passed for a total of 2,561 yards and seventeen touchdowns.

Tarkenton had already earned the nickname of "The Scrambler" for his uncanny ability to elude tacklers and rush for yardage, but some of his improvisations on the football field left Vikings coaches unsettled and not altogether happy. Shortly after the 1966 season, he was traded to the New York Giants. In 1967, his first season with the Giants, Tarkenton passed for a total of 3,088 yards and twenty-nine touchdowns. In 1968, he threw for 2,555 yards and twenty-one touchdowns, followed by 2,918 yards and twenty-three touchdowns in 1969. He passed for a total of 2,567 yards and eleven touchdowns in 1970 and 2,651 yards and eighteen touchdowns in 1971. Shortly after the 1971 season, the Giants traded Tarkenton back to the Vikings in exchange for Norm Snead, Bob Grim, Vince Clements, a first round draft pick in 1972 and a second-round selection in the 1973 draft.

Chronology

1940	Born in Richmond, Virginia, on February 3
1955	Leads Athens (GA) High School team to state football championship
1957-61	Attends University of Georgia
1961	Drafted by Minnesota Vikings of the NFL and Boston Patriots of the AFL
1966	Traded to New York Giants from the Vikings
1972	Returns to Minnesota Vikings and founds Behavioral Systems Inc.
1979	Retires from professional football
1979	Hired by ABC-TV as commentator on "Monday Night Football" and co-host of "That's Incredible"
1995	Sells Knowledge Ware at substantial loss
1999	Pays $100,000 in settlement of SEC fraud charges in connection with Knowledge Ware operation

Related Biography: Coach Wally Butts

Coach and athletic director at the University of Georgia for more than two decades, Wally Butts helped to shape the football careers of Hall of Famers Frank Sinkwich, Charley Trippi, and Fran Tarkenton. Perhaps more importantly, Butts instilled a sense of values and discipline in all the young men who passed through his football program at Georgia.

Born near Milledgeville, Georgia, on February 7, 1905, he was the only child of James Wallace Butts, who ran a dray service, and Anna Louisetta (Hutchinson) Butts. His mother died when he was only three, and he and his father moved to Atlanta, where young Butts was raised by a grandmother, aunts, and uncles. He developed into an outstanding football player and captained his football team at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. After graduating from Mercer in 1928, Butts began coaching at Madison A&M University and later coached at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville and Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1938 Butts was hired as an assistant by University of Georgia football coach Joel Hunt. The following year, Hunt quit, and Butts took over as head coach. Over the next twenty-two years, he built the University of Georgia's Bulldogs into a national football power. Perhaps his finest moment came in 1959 when his Bulldogs, led by All-Americans Tarkenton and Pat Dye, won the Southeastern Conference championship.

Butts left the University of Georgia in 1963, not long after a scandal erupted over a story in the Saturday Evening Post charging that he had colluded with legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant to throw a game in 1962. Both Butts and Bryant sued the popular magazine, but only Butts' case made it court, where he was awarded libel damages of $3 million, a figure eventually pared down to just under $500,000. Butts launched a new career in the insurance business. He set up his own company in Athens, Georgia, and eventually became a millionaire, largely on the strength of business from Georgia alumni. In December 1973, Butts suffered a fatal heart attack while jogging on the city streets of Athens.

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