Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
Career Statistics
Once again in 1974, Tarkenton led the Vikings to an
NFC championship, but the team’s luck was no better
in Super Bowl IX, where it lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers,
16-6. Although Tarkenton was selected for the Pro
Bowl, he did not play. In 1975, his 15th season in the
NFL, he compiled a sizzling pass completion rate of
64.7 percent, the best of his career, throwing for 2,994
yards and 25 touchdowns. Tarkenton’s performance
powered the Vikings to another championship in the
NFC’s Central Division. The sports media heaped
praise on Tarkenton for his brilliant year. He was named
the NFL’s Most Valuable Player by Associated Press,
Newspaper Enterprise Association, Pro Football Weekly,
and Sporting News. Additionally, Sporting News
named him NFC Player of the Year; Pro Football Weekly
dubbed him NFL Offensive Player of the Year; and
both Associated Press and United Press International
named him All-NFC.
In the 1976 season Tarkenton threw for 2,961 yards
and seventeen touchdowns, winning the Vikings a return
trip to the Super Bowl in January 1977. It was to be
Tarkenton’s final Super Bowl game, and, like the first
two, it ended in defeat. In Super Bowl XI, the Oakland
Raiders bested the Vikings, 32-14, although Tarkenton
completed seventeen of thirty-five passes for 205 yards
and a touchdown. At the end of the regular season,
Tarkenton was named All-NFC by United Press International.
In 1977, he suffered a broken leg in the Vikings’
November 13 game against the Cincinnati Bengals,
which kept him out of the final five games of the regular
season as well as two playoff games. For the season as a
whole, he threw for a total of 1,734 yards and nine
touchdowns. In 1978, his final season, Tarkenton threw
for 3,468 yards and twenty-five touchdowns, leading the
Vikings to another NFC Central Division championship.
Retires from Pro Football
Tarkenton
Passing Rushing
Yr Team GP ATT COM
YDS COM% Y/A TD INT ATT YDS TD
1961 MIN 14 280 157 1997 56.1 7.1 18 17 56 308 5
1962 MIN 14 329 163 2595 49.5 7.9 22 25 41 361 2
1963 MIN 14 297 170 2311 57.2 7.8 15 15 28 162 1
1964 MIN 14 306 171 2506 55.9 8.2 22 11 50 330 2
1965 MIN 14 329 171 2609 52.0 7.9 19 11 56 356 1
1966 MIN 14 358 192 2561 53.6 7.2 17 16 62 376 4
1967 NYG 14 377 204 3088 54.1 8.2 29 19 44 306 2
1968 NYG 14 337 182 2555 54.0 7.6 21 12 57 301 3
1969 NYG 14 409 220 2918 53.8 7.1 23 8 37 172 0
1970 NYG 14 389 219 2777 56.3 7.1 19 12 43 236 2
1971 NYG 13 386 226 2567 58.5 6.7 11 21 30 111 3
1972 MIN 14 378 215 2651 56.9 7.0 18 13 27 180 0
1973 MIN 14 274 169 2113 61.7 7.7 15 7 41 202 1
1974 MIN 13 351 199 2598 56.7 7.4 17 12 21 120 2
1975 MIN 14 425 273 2994 64.2 7.0 25 13 16 108 2
1976 MIN 13 412 255 2961 61.9 7.2 17 8 27 45 1
1977 MIN 9 258 155 1734 60.1 6.7 9 14 15 6 0
1978 MIN 16 572 345 3468 60.3 6.1 25 32 24 -6 1
TOTAL 246 6467 3686 47003 57.0 7.3 342 266 675 3674 32
MIN: Minnesota Vikings; NYG: New York Giants.
Shortly after the end of the 1978 season, Tarkenton
announced his decision to retire from professional football.
By this time, his business career was already well
established. Between the early 1970s and the beginning
of the new millennium, Tarkenton launched a dozen different
businesses, and he’s always had a passion for
small business. It was when he ventured into business on
a grander scale that Tarkenton eventually ran into trouble.
His involvement with KnowledgeWare, an Atlantabased
software company selling customized applications
to business mainframe operators around the world, started
off on a positive note. But over time technology
changed the face of business computer operations, replacing
the mainframe with networked personal computers.
Unfortunately KnowledgeWare didn’t keep pace
with these technological changes, and by mid-1994 the
company was in deep trouble financially. By the end of
1994, Tarkenton, chairman and chief executive officer of
KnowledgeWare, was forced to sell the company at a significant
loss. The debacle not only cost Tarkenton money
but some longtime business associates and friends. To
make matters worse, the government eventually charged
Tarkenton with carrying out a financial fraud scheme as
CEO of KnowledgeWare. The former quarterback and
six other former KnowledgeWare executives agreed in
September 1999 to an agreement settling the case. They
paid a fine of $100,000 and repaid more than $50,000 in
incentive compensation. Under the terms of the settlement,
they neither admitted or denied the charges.
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