Thomas Herrion was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player for the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

. Born in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, Herrion, a 6-foot-3 (190 cm), 310-pound (140 kg) guard, played college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 first at Kilgore College

Kilgore College

Kilgore College is a community college located in Kilgore, Texas. It has an annual enrollment of more than 5000 students.The school was established in 1935 at the height of the East Texas oil boom...

 at the junior college

Junior college

The term junior college refers to different educational institutions in different countries.-India:In India, most states provide schooling through 12th grade...

 level before transferring to the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 where he blocked for current San Francisco 49ers quarterback and number one draft pick Alex Smith

Alex Smith

Alexander Douglas Smith is a professional American football player and starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Smith was drafted with the 1st-overall pick in the 1st round of the 2005 NFL Draft by San Francisco from the University of Utah...

. He was signed to a reserve/futures contract with the 49ers on January 5, 2005 and spent one season playing in NFL Europe

NFL Europe

NFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...

 with the Hamburg Sea Devils

Hamburg Sea Devils

The Hamburg Sea Devils were an American football team that began play in NFL Europa from 2005 to 2007. They played their home games at Hamburg's AOL Arena . They played their first game on April 2, 2005 losing 24-23 to the Cologne Centurions...

.

Shortly after an exhibition game against the Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 on August 20, 2005, Herrion collapsed in the locker room and was transported to St. Anthony’s Central Hospital in Denver where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was later determined to be Ischaemic heart disease

Ischaemic heart disease

Ischaemic or ischemic heart disease , or myocardial ischaemia, is a disease characterized by ischaemia of the heart muscle, usually due to coronary artery disease...

, or (according to a subsequent examination of the autopsy report) hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease of the myocardium in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied without any obvious cause...

.

On September 2, the 49ers established the Thomas Herrion Memorial Award, which will be given to the player who best exemplifies the spirit of Thomas Herrion.

On the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, former 49er coach Mike Nolan

Mike Nolan

Mike Nolan is an American football coach and the current defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins...

 commended Herrion for being "musical".

External links

• Utah Utes Profile