Fran Tarkenton
February 3, 1940
Football Hall Of Famer

Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton is a former professional football player, TV personality, and computer software executive. He is best known for playing with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, as well as serving as a commentator on Monday Night Football and a co-host of That's Incredible!. At the time of his retirement he owned every major quarterback record.

Tarkenton was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Athens (GA) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.

Tarkenton 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 in Richmond, Virginia. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a pentecostal 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. He led Georgia to the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship under Coach Wally Butts.

Tarkenton, his wife Linda, and daughter Hayley currently reside in the Buckhead Community of Atlanta, Georgia. They also enjoy spending time at their home located on the shores of Lake Burton in Rabun County, Georgia, and playing golf at Waterfall Country Club, which overlooks Lake Burton and the surrounding mountains. They also spend most of their summers in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

More information...

ALSO ON THIS DAY IN...
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.
1870 – The 15thth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet long.
1947 – The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in an incident that becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.
1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.
2008 – The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18–0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17–14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
2011 – All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.