We won’t talk about some business. We will talk about some fun facts that maybe you don’t know. I want to show you one of my favorite people. Some people say he is the greatest quarterback in the world’s history, although others would disagree with that. But, agree or don’t agree, he is undoubtedly one of the better ones, Fran Tarkenton.
Fran Tarkenton played for a long time, served for different teams, owned every record in professional football when he retired. Fran was my business partner for several years. We didn’t want to part, but we did because I wanted to go in a different direction. A super, superman that I have the most respect for.
One of the funny stories about Fran is he did commercials for me. And he started with business talks on Hall of Fame Quarterback, “I want to tell you about my good friend, Jim Mckennon..”. Here is an article we got, and they called Dave Pace and me as a representative for that. So Pace calls me and said, “Mckennon, you don’t know Fran? Fran talked about you that you’re talking a bunch of baloney. You’re paying money to do things,” which is not true, I don’t pay for anything, I couldn’t afford it.
So I went to Fran. Fran has a meeting twice a year at his home. We went to his house to a cocktail party of about 100 hours. I walked up to him and said, “Hey Fran how you doing?” “Well, hey Jim Bob, how you doing?” And I told him Pace told me you know me, you know Jim Mckennon. Then he kinda said, “Jim Mckennon? I never heard of Jim Mckennon. I know Jim Bob for six months and he’s a halfway decent guy. By the way, Jim Bob, this is a private party and you are not invited. Hey, security! Security!”
So I have that filmed, and I took it to lunch club where Dave and I are both members, and I said, “Guys, I want you to see that when the devil is right, I’ll give him his dues and Fran said he didn’t know me and he is absolutely right.” I played that video, and he got his best life of getting by. Great guy.
THINGS ABOUT FRAN TARKENTON THAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW
Fran was a half-paid guy and pro football when he retired, making 250,000 a year. A lot of outstanding quarterbacks now are making almost that much. He just played a little too early. He didn’t make his money on football; he made his money after football. Google him, and you’ll see he’s probably a billionaire. He owns about 30 companies, but he is the funniest man I’ve ever known. He’s a great, great guy.We used to go to Atlanta twice a year and listen to some of our stories.
He always tells a story about the fact that he was drafted in the sixth round. That means that they think you are too slow, too weak, and not tough enough, so you’re not going to make it. Why waste the high draft getting you on the sixth round. The expansion team drafted him to make it even worse than the Minnesota Viking, who was only getting started up. But Frank proved them all wrong and went on and played for 17 years, and as I said, he has every record on pro football when he retired.
He sought Matt and runs talking in financial, and Matt is a nice gal on his own. He finished at Yale, plays football at Yale with a former coach of the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Matt was a wide receiver and a small guy, probably 140 lbs. certainly enough, not the kind of material you won’t have to play on a pro. But I understand that he was an excellent college football player in the Ivy League.
One of the super, super fun stories that I like is when Fran started getting high school offers at our high school. He was a good quarterback, one of the better ones but probably not the best. And he got a few scholarship offers, and one of those is the University of Georgia. And all of his buddies told him not to go to Georgia. You’ll never play there. They drafted two high schools, all Americans, two years in a row.
You’ll be a freshman, on to be a sophomore, on to be a junior, so you’ll going to sit on the bench for two or three years before you get a chance. Fran says that is probably good advice, but he has never been afraid of competition. So he went ahead and went to Georgia, and he was indeed ready, able, and willing to compete with all those guys. However, the coach was concerned about letting him compete. So his coach told him he’s not going to play. He is going to ride the bench before that. You go to the games, dress up, and those kinds of stuff.
The first game that they have was on national television. The guest was Texas, and Georgia was on national power that year. Texas was a hit 7 to nothing. Texas pointed the ball to Georgia. Georgia caught the ball on their 10-yard land, get 90 yards to go. The quarterback came out to confer with the coach, and when he did, Fran ran into the game on his own. No one said anything to him, and runs in. So he got in and was told, “Tarkenton what are you doing”? He said, “Shut up, if I don’t score a touchdown coach’s gonna kill me.” So he completes a three-pass, then the coach could hardly do anything after that. The coach was like, well, I’ll let the guy play the game, I guess I’ll let him continue to play. So they got a score. Now, after they scored, the coach sends in the kicker, and Fran waves him off.
The action is his own; the coach didn’t tell him anything. He says no, get back. We are going for two. He goes for two and luckily made it. Georgia wins the game 8-7. Now Tarkenton didn’t play the rest of the game anymore. The coach was humiliated; you know, you’re doing the things my way or your way, hit the road, and all these kinds of stuff. When they got back, they almost ran the coach out of town. He’s an outstanding coach. Fran was made first a quarterback earlier than the high schoolers that were ahead of him. He didn’t get to play much until he got into senior and started his career at that time. He was good enough to make all American schools get him drafted.
Fran taught me a lot. One of the best stories is when I had him come one day, and he wanted to give me a check of about half a million dollars. I suggested putting it on an index product, and he said, “you know it will be better if I’ll talk to a friend about this.” Now I have forgotten a whole lot more about these products, and Fran knows. He doesn’t have a lot of information about how these products work but, he’s a great human guy. He understands people, reads people very, very well. He’s the hardest working man you’ll ever meet.
Anyway, I called secretary Jill in Atlanta, and I said, “Jill, I got this guy here and wanted to give me some money and wanted if possible, to talk to a friend.” Jill said, “Jim, I don’t know, Fran’s playing golf at the double beach. Well, let me call him and see”. So she called him and probably within five minutes the phone rang and Fran’s on the line. Fran says, “Hi Jim, I understand that you’re a busy guy but can we talk for some time.” I got nothing to do, so I’ll be glad to talk to this gentleman. I couldn’t believe I’m talking to Frank Tarkenton!
Well, Fran says, “Jim says I’ll put this half a million dollar in this index product. What do you think?” This was Fran’s answer which I almost got a heart attack: “Bob,” or whatever his name is, “don’t let Jim Mckennon sell you anything.” Oh my God, I got him on the phone for this? “Don’t let him talk and sell you anything. You do what you think is right. Do you think that what Jim is telling you is the right thing to do?” “Well, Fran, I kinda do” Then do it. Can I help you with anymore?” “Well, no, thank you very much.” Then, he gave me the check. He has that kind of charisma, and he still got it. He’s a phenomenal, fun guy. He has written several books, and if you have the chance to get any of his books, some of the stuff I heard him tell the stories personally. Grab a copy of his books.
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