I Was the First NFL Quarterback to Host ‘Saturday Night Live’

These days, a sports star hosting Saturday Night Live is pretty commonplace. While sometimes it's painfully clear that they’re not up to the challenge (looking at you, Michael Phelps), there have also been pleasant surprises (e.g., the funnier-than-expected Peyton Manning). Back in the show’s early days, though, most of the hosts were actors, comedians and other proven show-business types. Except, of course, for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who in Season Two, became the first athlete to host SNL.

Less than three weeks removed from losing Super Bowl XI to the Oakland Raiders, Tarkenton explained in his monologue that he was asked to host a few days before the big game. When the Vikings lost, he thought he was off-the-hook — but alas. And so, all he could really do is sing Morris Albert’s maudlin “Feelings,” which he did charmingly (if somewhat poorly). He was featured in several football-themed sketches, too. Tarkenton was sometimes visibly nervous, but he was also earnest and likable, paving the way for dozens of other athletes to take on SNL hosting duties in the decades that followed.

Given that this year is all about looking back at SNL history as the show turns 50, I recently caught up with the 84-year-old Tarkenton to talk about what it was like to go from the gridiron to Studio 8H. It’s certainly not an experience he’ll ever forget. In fact, several pictures from his 1977 hosting stint still hang in his Atlanta office to this day.

Do you remember how you were asked to host the show? 

I remember it all. I was in Pasadena, where we were going to play Oakland in the Super Bowl. One of my PR guys with the Vikings said, “Saturday Night Live wants you to host the show.” I said, “What’s Saturday Night Live?” I didn’t even know what Saturday Night Live was! I’d never seen it — never heard of it — because I was laser-focused on football. It was out of my comfort zone. But when I say that, nothing was really out of my comfort zone — I was pretty daring — so I told them I’d do it. 

After we lost to the Raiders, I went to New York and the studio at Rockefeller Center. I got there on the Wednesday before the show, and I met all the staff. John Belushi was a big football fan and a character from Chicago. The girls were just great and wonderful. I’d never heard of any of them, but they were all clearly very talented.

I was stupid enough not to be fearful, because I was young and playing in Super Bowls and setting pass records, life was good. I thought I could do just about anything. Then I got there and watched these people, and they were as talented as anyone I’d ever been around in my life. They started doing all the different skits they wanted me to do — about five or six of them. 

Most of them you couldn’t do today. There was one with Garrett Morris about Black quarterbacks that you couldn’t do today. There was also a cut sketch about Lou Gehrig where I think Dan Aykroyd played Gehrig and he’s talking, doing his “Luckiest Man” speech. Then he goes off and starts yelling, “I’m gonna die! I don’t want to die!” 

I saw that they wanted me to sing “Feelings.” Now, I can’t sing anything, but finally one of the guys says, “Fran, you gotta try.” So I did and we kept that in, but that’s when I figured out I was in way over my head. 

Everything I’ve done in my life was because I’ve learned from other people. Football, I talked to every Hall of Fame quarterback — “How did you do it?” “How did you do this?” — from Sid Luckman all the way to Y.A. Tittle. I’m not afraid to go ask for help, and I needed help! So I got Belushi and Bill Murray. I said, “Boys, this is your place. You’re natural at it. You know what to do. I know nothing. I’ve got these five or six things I’ve got to do — you’ve got to do them for me and, I cannot be like you, but I can get a model for it.” They were very gracious, I think because they were all football fans.

That’s how I’ve lived my life, and that’s how I got through hosting Saturday Night Live. 

Was it smooth after that?

No! See, what they do is, they do a run-through early Saturday night to get the bugs out, then they go live later that night. But when we did rehearsal, we only got through 50 percent of the show. Lorne Michaels said we had to pick up the slack for the live show, but he didn’t change anything. I said to him, “We didn’t get through the whole thing!” And he said, “We’ll get through the whole thing.” And we did! 

Do any other memories of Lorne stand out?

He was the producer/director — the coach. To me, he was the ultimate coach. He was the Bud Grant. He called the shots. He was kind to me, generous to me, didn't tell me how stupid I was. And when we only did half the show during rehearsal, he was so calm. He took over and made the show happen. 

What else do you remember about the cast?

They wanted me to come down to an after-party at, I think, Aykroyd’s place. It was a place where I had to get into an elevator at two in the morning. I’d never seen a place like this. I opened the door and the room was packed, and there were funny smells all over the place. I was a 16-year veteran of the National Football League, but I was naive about all this stuff. 

I also saw a line of people standing around, and at the end of the line, I saw this guy holding up a blanket, and from behind the blanket, I heard a flushing. Then the guy took the blanket and handed it to the next guy, and he held it up while he took a shit at the toilet. And they were as natural as can be!

I stayed at the party for an hour/hour-and-a-half. I wasn't a big drinker. I was just standing there saying, “Holy shit! This is a whole other world.”

I did stay in touch with Belushi afterwards, almost until the day he died. I also stayed in touch with Bill Murray for a long time. I haven’t stayed in touch with any of the rest, but it was a great, great experience for me. I didn’t learn anything that could help me with anything else, but I learned that I wasn’t an actor.

Actually, I ended up co-hosting the show That’s Incredible! with John Davidson and Cathy Lee Crosby because of SNL. The producer saw me on Saturday Night Live and hired me on the spot. I can’t imagine what he saw that he liked, but he must have liked it because I hosted that show for five years.