Fran Tarkenton is an American former football player….who was a quarterback for the University of Georgia….and, subsequently, in the National Football League (NFL)…..where he played for 18 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Minnesota Vikings….which spanned thirteen non-consecutive seasons….while playing with the team for six seasons from 1961 to 1966….then for seven seasons from 1972 to 1978…..while in between his years in Minnesota, Tarkenton was a member of the New York Giants for five seasons. At the time of his retirement, Tarkenton owned every major quarterback record in the NFL….and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986….as well as the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987.
In addition to his football career, Tarkenton served as a commentator on Monday Night Football…..and a co-host of the television program 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.
