Two-time Super Bowl champion with San Francisco 49ers passes away at age 66
The San Francisco 49ers have lost another member of their first two Super Bowl championship teams.
The team announced Thursday that offensive tackle Keith Fahnhorst, who helped protect legendary quarterback Joe Montana, died Tuesday at age 66.
No cause of death was given.
His death comes just eight days after 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark died at age 61 from ALS.
Fahnhorst appeared in 193 regular season games for the 49ers from 1974 to 1987, the eighth most in team history, and also started in 10 postseason games.
He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1985 and earned All-Pro honors in 1983 and 1984.
The Minnesota native also was a two-time recipient of his team’s Bobb McKittrick Award for courage, intensity and sacrifice, winning the honor in 1981 and 1986.
Fahnhorst won rings as a member of the Super Bowl XVI and XIX champions.
He missed nine games in the 1987 season because of a neck injury that left him with numbness in his legs and feet, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Fahnhorst retired because of the problem and continued to deal with it for the rest of his life.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Fahnhorst said had been told he had either primary progressive multiple sclerosis or Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
He also battled polycystic kidney disease, receiving a kidney transplant in 2001.
The Chronicle said Fahnorst had to use a wheelchair the past few years and no longer could work.
Several former teammates and many others paid tribute to him on social media.
https://twitter.com/ManuTuiasosopo/status/1007576607232364544
Keith was my teammate for 12 years and I played RG next to him for 9 1/2 years. We won SB’s together, went to ProBowls together, lockered next to each other + I was lucky to call him my friend. WorldClass Dad + Husband who was gentle + kind to all. RIP https://t.co/Zcr5BQ79y1
— Randy Cross (@randycrossFB) June 15, 2018
Keith Fahnhorst was the @49ers longtime union rep. After the 1982 strike settled, he went AFTER THE UNION BOSSES, for negotiating a deal that screwed younger players.
(Fahnhorst was an 8-year vet at that point, acting against his own interests.)
Good player, great person.#RIP pic.twitter.com/g74y19u9yJ— Peter Hartlaub (@peterhartlaub) June 15, 2018
The Mercury News’ Gary Peterson described him as “intelligent (a stock broker in his post-football life), stoic and Minnesota-friendly.”
“He played on some of the worst 49ers teams ever, then played on some of the best NFL teams ever, winning two Super Bowls under coach Bill Walsh. … I availed myself of Fahnhorst’s voice of reason many times,” Peterson wrote.
Our prayers are with his family, friends and former teammates.
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