Baseball may be America’s national pastime, but football is, and for over fifty years has by far been, the country’s most popular sport. From September through early February, many people’s definition of working for the weekend means watching the gridiron games.  Some men of the cloth even arrange services to ensure the parishioners are perched on their couches instead of the pews by kickoff.

Millions of Americans are football fans, most of whom are particularly passionate about their favorite team. Many can be described as obsessed or even rabid, and their fervency is sometimes taken too far, such as at the 2022 NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, in which a physical altercation between fans of the opposing teams resulted in a man falling into a medically induced coma for five weeks. As awful as that incident was, a crazed fan many have committed an even worse atrocity over thirty years earlier.

In the early hours of April 29, 1991, thirty-six-year-old Dick Hansen was shot to death on a Sunnyvale, California, road, approximately fifteen miles northwest of San Jose. Absent the establishment of any suspect in his murder, authorities theorized he had been killed by an unhinged football fanatic.

Dick Hansen

Dick Hansen lived in Sunnyvale, part of Silicon Valley, and worked as an electronics industry manager. He had two daughters, ages thirteen and eleven.

On the evening of April 28, 1991, Dick, recently divorced and having successfully completed alcohol rehab, met several friends for drinks at Original Joe’s, a bar/restaurant in downtown San Jose, where he consumed only non-alcoholic drinks.

Dick And His Daughters

Dick and a former girlfriend left the bar together at around 1:00 a.m. in her car. She drove to where he had parked his pickup several blocks away on an otherwise deserted road and parked behind it. As they chatted, they noticed a man driving what appeared to be a Pontiac LeMans park behind them. He did not exit his car and left it running as he stared at Dick and his friend while they continued talking.

After several minutes, Dick exited the woman’s car and entered his truck. She lived about an hour away and was going to follow him because she was unfamiliar with the area. They both pulled onto the road, as did the man in the third vehicle. He continued trailing them, specifically the woman, as they made several turns. While stopped beside Dick at an intersection, she told him she thought she was being followed. He told her not to worry.

Dick and his friend proceeded onto the freeway; so did the third driver. Over roughly the following ten miles, the man continued trailing them while mimicking the woman’s every move. If she changed lanes, he changed lanes; if she sped up, he sped up; if she slowed down, he slowed down. At one point, she slammed on her brakes and stopped; so did the man.

After approximately ten minutes, Dick motioned his friend to exit onto a side road; the man again followed them. All three vehicles came to a stop, with Dick parked in front, the woman in the middle, and the third driver at the rear. Both Dick and his friend exited their vehicles and glared at the street stalker; neither recognized him. Dick then told her to get back into her car as he confronted the individual.

Dick’s friend heard him ask something to the effect of what are you doing, and, through her rearview mirror, saw the man gesture toward the back of her vehicle. Whatever was said angered Dick as he threw his arms in the air in exasperation, yelled an expletive at the driver, and told him to scram.

A few seconds later, the woman heard two gunshots and saw Dick fall to the ground. When she exited her car, the shooter stared at her for several seconds before speeding away.

Another motorist had heard the shots and phoned police. Having been shot in the head and neck, Dick never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at Stanford University Hospital.

Dick Is Shot Dead

Police believe Dick did not know his assailant, and, finding no motive or suspects in his murder, they speculated the killer may have been angered by the woman’s license plate to which she believed he had pointed. She was a big San Francisco 49ers fan, and her plate read “49R HUGS” (or “49ER HUGS.”) It was speculated the killer was a deranged football fan who despised the ‘Niners.

This working theory, however, has also produced no suspects, and some believe if this were the case, the woman would also have been killed because it was her car that bore the odious reading.

Was The Killer As Crazed Football Fanatic?

Having a large physical stature and bearing a resemblance to 49ers player Harris Barton, some have pondered if Dick, a former college football lineman, had been mistaken for the NFL and future College Football Hall of Fame lineman. Others have speculated the killer was in fact a 49ers fan who was upset at their having lost the NFC Championship game played three months earlier.

Neither of these theories, as well, have not been proven.

   

                                            Dick Hansen   Harris Barton

Dick’s friend described the killer as a dark-complexioned Caucasian, perhaps being Hispanic or Mediterranean, who wore large glasses with thick black frames. She estimated he was in his late thirties or early forties, meaning he would now be in his late sixties to early-to-mid-seventies.

A Composite Of Dick’s Killer

The killer’s car appeared to be a 1970 Pontiac GTO LeMans two-door coupe having a dull, faded, light-gray or blue paint similar to one pictured below.

A 1970 Pontiac GTO LeMans

The murder of Dick Hanson was profiled in 1994 on Unsolved Mysteries and on the short-lived Investigation Discovery (ID) series Dates From Hell in 2014. Both shows gave Dick’s female friend the pseudonym “Jean.”  

 The Unsolved Mysteries segment said Dick and Jean had had drinks with several friends at Original Joe’s; the Dates From Hell segment said they had met alone at the restaurant for a date and had attended a night club afterwards. The latter show also dramatized a scene of Dick yelling at Jean for not having visited him while he was in rehab, but official police reports state there was no argument between them at the restaurant.

“Jean,” a Silicon Tech executive, was cleared of involvement in Dick’s murder.

“Jean” (Dick’s Friend)

If you have information relating to the murder of Dick Hansen, please contact the Sunnyvale, California, Police Department at 408-730-7100.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178722872/richard-gerald-hansen

Who Killed Dick?

I found nothing suggesting Dick Hansen’s former wife had enlisted someone to kill him.

Dick is purported to have played college football at Santa Clara University (often misidentified as Santa Clara State University), which no longer has a football team. However, I could not find any listing for him in the College Football Database or on sports-reference.com. A Dick Hanson played college football at North Dakota State and briefly for the NFL’s New York Giants in 1971.

Dick’s Football Background, Like His Murder, Is A Mystery

SOURCES: 

• • Dates From Hell
  • Unsolved Mysteries