Word: tarkenton
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...onetime assistant coach, Thomas' reputation for finding football talent was so established that he was the first person hired by the expansion Vikings and, later, the Dolphins. He is pro football's master builder, a craftsman of the draft and the trade, the man who picked Fran Tarkenton when scrambling quarterbacks were an apostasy in the N.F.L., and who traded for Paul Warfield when he was supposedly Cleveland's only untradable player. He refers to his system as the "artichoke method." Says Thomas: "You build from the inside. At the core are the tender young rookies...
...Died. The Rev. Dallas Tarkenton, 63, Pentecostal Holiness Church minister and father of Minnesota Viking Quarterback Fran Tarkenton; of a heart attack, while watching his son's team lose to the Dallas Cowboys, 17-14, in an N.F.L. play-off game; in Savannah...
...biggest reason for their success is the play of Quarterback Fran Tarkenton, 35, now in his 15th pro season. Hampered last year by a sore arm-he was treated in the off-season by Dodger Relief Pitcher Mike Marshall, a graduate student and expert in body mechanics at Michigan State-Tarkenton has already thrown for 15 touchdowns. He leads the league with a completion mark of better than 60%. Indeed, Tarkenton, who has never been seriously injured, should soon become the leading passer in N.F.L. history. Only ten more TD throws will break John Unitas' lifetime high...
Despite his long tenure in the league, his enthusiasm for the game seems not to have diminished. "I love it," he says. "I'm a purist of the game itself." Tarkenton (6 ft., 190 lbs.) leads in other ways as well. When offensive coaches gather every week to plan strategy for the next game, he sits in, offering suggestions. On Sunday he calls his own signals in the huddle and is a master at dissecting a defense. Unlike many methodical quarterbacks, Tarkenton is a gambler. His desperate scrambles behind the line of scrimmage are the stuff of N.F.L. legend...
...Tarkenton gets plenty of help. If Buffalo's O.J. Simpson were not monopolizing the headlines for running backs, the Vikings' Chuck Foreman might. Going into last weekend's game against the New Orleans Saints, Foreman was the leading pass catcher in pro football with 38 receptions, as well as the second-leading rusher (576 yds.) and the top touchdown producer (eleven) in his conference. When Foreman is not handling the ball, Tarkenton can also give it to two other solid young runners, Ed Marinaro and Brent McClanahan, or can look downfield for veteran Tight End Stu Voigt...