>it definetly is not being stored as a NULL value. IF I reset it to NULL afterward it shows as BLANK on the screen, but when the value is BLANK (not null) it gets saved as 01/01/1900

There's ODBC option 'Nulls' wchich can be Yes or No. If it's Yes than empty dates are sent to Sql Server as Nulls. Make sure that it's set to Yes or send Nulls instead of empty dates to Sql Server.