Tampa, San Francisco, South Carolina and and probably many more places across the U.S. are mourning the death on Monday of Freddie Solomon after a nine-month battle with colon and liver cancer. As has been well-covered by Tampa Bay media, Solomon was a former football star who was respected just as much if not more for his work with at-risk kids through the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department after he retired from the NFL in 1985. But as a native San Franciscan, I'll always remember him, first and foremost, as a 49er.

After I moved to Tampa from San Francisco in 2000, I would occasionally read stories about Solomon in the local press, but I thought this was a different Freddie Solomon than the one who starred with the Niners (in fact, there was another Freddie Solomon who played with the Philadelphia Eagles).

Why? Well, because he was always referred to as this incredible quarterback at the University of Tampa.
As far as I remembered, Freddie was always a wide receiver in the NFL. And also, the University of Tampa had a football team? What the hell?

(Watch Freddie Solomon's first playoff touchdown vs. NY Giants from January 1982)