Hall of Fame Georgia Life

Sharing laughs in Buckhead with the remarkable Fran Tarkenton — Pro Football Hall of Famer, Georgia Bulldog, and entrepreneurial marvel — chatting for our GPB program, Georgia Legends.

“I will never stop working, coming to the office, trying to change the world. I’m 85 now, but I’ve just bought a company involving AI (artificial intelligence)." 

Fran Tarkenton, an extraordinary life. 

He led Athens High to a state championship, took Georgia to the SEC title and Orange Bowl victory, and the NFL Vikings to NFC legendary success.

Then there’s Monday Night Football with Frank and Howard, hosted SNL with Belushi, Ackroyd and Murray, the ABC reality TV hit, “That’s Incredible,” entrepreneurial riches with savvy business acumen, Keynote at the GOP convention, and most importantly—a great NFL teammate. And of course, Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/GPB

Mr. Tarkenton is most proud of his enduring relationships.

“People I started businesses with years ago still speak to me,” laughed the first upwardly mobile NFL quarterback. 

On this day in late June, Fran was followed by a small group of his associates, all bouncing off business ideas and upcoming appointments. 

“Time passes by quickly, I don’t need this watch to understand such things.”

Unlike most of us, time would seem to be an ally of Mr. Tarkenton. 

On the 23rd floor of Tower Place, the walls of Tarkenton Financial offer a timeline of his American sports century. 

Cosell, Gifford, Unitas, Shula, Marshall, Grant, Eller, Belushi, Ackroyd—all represented.

Encased near the great man, a lone Wilson football, “The Duke.”

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/GPB

Dallas 25, Game Ball presented to Fran Tarkenton, Grady Stadium, Atlanta, GA.

September 8, 1962, Grady Stadium, Minnesota Vikings vs. Dallas Cowboys.

The University of Georgia Football team chartered a bus to Piedmont Park to support their former star quarterback. 

“We probably had 25 hundred people watching. It was our (Vikings) last exhibition game of the year and Grady was empty,” laughs Mr. Tarkenton.

It would be a precursor to the coming Atlanta professional sports experience. 

Where is everyone?

In 1962, Atlanta was attempting to lure the NFL toward an expansion team, the Greater Atlanta Athletic Association had put $25,000 down for an AFL team. 

What about the NFL? 

Where would Atlanta land?

“We played at Grady because the league figured I would help draw a crowd having led Athens High to a state title and the Bulldogs to the SEC Championship,” recalled Mr. Tarkenton. 

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle was in Atlanta and was being squired by Governor Carl Sanders.

Governor Sanders told me a few years ago, Commissioner Rozelle had asked if he knew of a wealthy local business person who could own an expansion franchise.

Governor Sanders responded with the name of his University of Georgia friend, insurance executive Rankin Smith.

Commissioner Rozelle told local scribes on Grady game night that the league wanted to expand—“Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami have the best chances but there is no timetable.”

There were a few issues to contend with prior to the Grady High School Stadium game.

Mr. Tarkenton had contracted Pneumonia during the Vikings training camp at Bemidji, Minnesota.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame QB offers, laughing, “I was out a couple of weeks before Atlanta. It snows 11 months of the year in Bemidji. Always cold.”

The other issue for the Vikings and Cowboys—segregation in Atlanta. 

African American and white players could not stay in the same Atlanta hotel and they couldn’t eat together.

Navigating around issues of race in the south were vexing for NFL and AFL teams. 

Southern expansion would present a difficult world in 1962.

“Thank God we woke up in America and changed. All of my teammates were my brothers, but African Americans stayed in a midtown hotel separate from us.”

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/GPB

1962 Atlanta had 6 pro football games in a month.

4 AFL games.

2 NFL games (Bears vs Steelers, August 11th, also at Grady Stadium). 

The Vikings and Cowboys combined for 71 points, a rarity for the era.

“We were two really good offensive teams, Don Meredith and Tom Landry, it was a different game then but we still scored. I’ll never forget the feeling —we left Atlanta having won 5 straight exhibition games, but only won 2 all season,” said Mr. Tarkenton. 

Atlanta would enter the NFL in 1966, New Orleans one year later, and Miami would opt for the AFL. 

Two of the three would go on to win Super Bowls.

As for Mr. Tarkenton, “When I entered the league, I was labeled a scrambler, a freak, it won’t work out, now every quarterback is mobile. The days of the pocket passer are over.”

Fran Tarkenton’s life after football has been just as prosperous.

“750 to 800 NFL players live in Atlanta metro, every week, many asking about football transition.” 

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/GPB

In the Tarkenton life, always a synergy between sport and business, an unparalleled life.

“I’m lucky. What would I have done, if not for my business career?”

After all these years, still running, still scrambling, still scoring.

85 is just a number. 

Fran Tarkenton wears it well.