Fran Tarkenton's Pro Football

Before the 1978 release of Atari Football or the days of EA Sports’ Madden NFL series, simulation football games were played by hand, with pieces and dice set up on a metal, vibrating model field. 

Invented by Tudor Metal Products in New York City in 1940, simulation football games were born out of a vibrating car racing game Tudor had previously created. The vibrations were created by an electromagnet situated underneath the metal field, allowing football fans to set up their players and watch them battle it out. 

As simulation games for a multitude of sports continued to grow in popularity through the 1960s, Research Games, Inc. felt they could make a superior product relative to their competitors. 

“We have tried to produce sport games which are more realistic and more challenging to serious sports fans than are the vast majority of games now on the market,” Research Games, Inc. President Robert N. Schneider wrote to International Management Group executive Thomas Joiner in 1967. 

To substantiate their creation of a superior simulation game, Research Games needed the endorsement of a credible voice who would both vouch for their achievement and bolster consumer interest. This search led them to scrambling quarterback extraordinaire and future Hall of Famer, Fran Tarkenton.  

Freshly traded from the Minnesota Vikings to the New York Giants, Research Games’ interest coincided with Tarkenton and IMG founder Mark McCormack’s desire to make Tarkenton rich enough to “retire this week if [he] wanted to,” per a 1971 New York Magazine article. 

On October 30, 1967, Tarkenton and Research Games formalized a contractual agreement for the product known as Fran Tarkenton’s Pro Football.  

In exchange for Tarkenton’s promotion of the football game and appearances in magazine advertisements, he was guaranteed $2,000 at signing and $1,000 the following year. Research Games also agreed to pay Tarkenton royalties per unit sold, starting at five percent for the first 10,000 games and reaching 20% if more than 30,000 games left store shelves. 

After the deal commenced, Research Games listed an ad in magazines such as Boys’ Life and Street & Smith’s Yearbooks, which included a picture of Tarkenton and quotes of him endorsing the product.  

“Fran Tarkenton calls Research Game’s PRO FOOTBALL…’The only game I have ever played that lets you call all the signals for every team in the NFL and AFL,’” the ad screams at the top.  “It is the most realistic, exciting, and fun-packed sports game I have ever seen.  I recommend it to anyone who loves the game of football.” 

While purchasing one’s own copy of Fran Tarkenton’s Pro Football is a difficult task in 2021, one can still find miniature electric football tournaments hosted by diehard fans of the pastime around the United States to this day.