Leon Baxter, a freshman football player at...

Leon Baxter, a freshman football player at University of Tennessee, followed an extreme diet and ate nothing in the days before he was stricken with a mysterious fatal illness, a newspaper says.

The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning newspaper, reported that medical records show the 18-year-old consumed only water in the four days before he was stricken on Jan. 28 during a light workout. His condition deteriorated and he died on Feb. 8.