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Cannon chimes in support for LF to win the Heisman
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:08 pm
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:08 pm
I remember Billy Cannon, Jr. as a great player at Texas A&M. He was 1st rounder with the Dallas Cowboys.
LINK /
ANGOLA, La. – White-haired now and a shadow of his legend, Billy Cannon stood outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary and mused about what is happening on Saturdays just south of the infamous prison.
“If Leonard keeps running like this, I’m going to be remembered,” he said.
Cannon, 78, isn’t likely to be forgotten. LSU’s only Heisman Trophy winner was immortalized in a flashbulb pop in 1959 when, with his kicker’s facemask and the ball gripped high in his right arm, he swam out of the dark of Tiger Stadium en route to an 89-yard punt return on which he broke seven tackle and scored a touchdown in LSU’s 7-3 victory over Ole Miss.
And for younger Tigers, like sophomore phenom and early Heisman favorite Leonard Fournette, there is the permanent reminder of Cannon’s name and retired number affixed to Tiger Stadium’s southeast corner. There is also the reminder of the undefeated 1958 national champions, a team Cannon anchored, on the northern scoreboard.
Cannon believes Fournette’s name and #7 may one day join him and Tommy Casanova on LSU’s ring of fame. And he is certain Fournette should become the second member of LSU’s exclusive Heisman Trophy club.
“If I could send my vote in right now I would and you know who it would be for,” Cannon said. “If Leonard keeps it up, there won’t be any reason to even vote for second or third place.”
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The two running backs – the elder nicknamed “Legend” in Louisiana and the younger bidding for the same – met once. It was at LSU’s spring scrimmage, an event Cannon attends each year. Fournette was then a senior at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans but had committed to LSU.
“Just a great kid,” Cannon said. “Smart, humble, and of course a magnificent athlete.”
Fournette insisted this week he isn’t thinking about the Heisman, putting the emphasis on No. 7 LSU staying undefeated when it hosts South Carolina in a game moved from Columbia due to epic floods there. Flooding is a darker thread that links not only South Carolina and Louisiana, which endured Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 10 years ago, but also Fournette and Cannon.
When Cannon was a boy in eastern Mississippi, his father lost the family farm to high water. When Fournette was a boy in New Orleans, he found himself sitting atop an interstate bridge in searing heat looking down at the filthy water that had inundated his city. Both men moved from that flooded root to football stardom in Baton Rouge.
“Leonard and I are water-related, you might say,” Cannon said.
Today, Cannon runs the dentistry program at Angola. Though he was never an inmate there, Cannon has more than a passing familiarity with prison. In 1983, Cannon went to a minimum security federal penitentiary in Texas after being convicted of counterfeiting. He was released after three years for good behavior.
Cannon earned a DDS degree after playing 10 years in the AFL, and following his release he offered his services at Angola. Eventually, he became the medical director there and was credited with turning around a decrepit operation riddled with Louisiana cronyism.
Some things never change in Louisiana, but college football isn’t one of them. Fournette plies his trade in a stadium packed with more than 100,000 people and before a national audience of millions. LSU was on television three times during Cannon’s four years there. From its six-story athletic department headquarters, LSU’s sports information department keeps people constantly updated on Fournette’s achievements. In Cannon’s day, the department was an office in a Spartan dorm room within Tiger Stadium in which two men shared a desk and a phone.
This year, Cannon attended the Auburn game in which Fournette rushed 19 times for 228 yards and three touchdowns. The highlight move there, the sort pundits claim a Heisman winner must have, came when an Auburn defender tried to tackle Fournette high and, without breaking stride, Fournette simply shrugged him off and continued to the end zone.
Cannon chuckles at that memory – “They’d had enough of Leonard by then,” he said of Auburn’s defense. But it was another carry, on which he watched Fournette instinctively find a hole inside the play’s designed route, make a smooth half-step to his right, and then in two more steps be back at full speed, that astonished Cannon.
“People say, ‘Legend, you used to run like that,’ and I say, ‘I used to dream I ran like that,’” Cannon said.
In one other respect, too, Cannon said Fournette may have his number: Fournette will return for his junior season and perhaps be the favorite only the second man to win the Heisman Trophy twice.
“When he does that move in the end zone, strikes that pose?” Cannon said in reference to the bronze stiff arm that represents the Heisman. “He needs to hold up two fingers. The next time he does that, I’d like to see him put up two fingers.”
LINK /
ANGOLA, La. – White-haired now and a shadow of his legend, Billy Cannon stood outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary and mused about what is happening on Saturdays just south of the infamous prison.
“If Leonard keeps running like this, I’m going to be remembered,” he said.
Cannon, 78, isn’t likely to be forgotten. LSU’s only Heisman Trophy winner was immortalized in a flashbulb pop in 1959 when, with his kicker’s facemask and the ball gripped high in his right arm, he swam out of the dark of Tiger Stadium en route to an 89-yard punt return on which he broke seven tackle and scored a touchdown in LSU’s 7-3 victory over Ole Miss.
And for younger Tigers, like sophomore phenom and early Heisman favorite Leonard Fournette, there is the permanent reminder of Cannon’s name and retired number affixed to Tiger Stadium’s southeast corner. There is also the reminder of the undefeated 1958 national champions, a team Cannon anchored, on the northern scoreboard.
Cannon believes Fournette’s name and #7 may one day join him and Tommy Casanova on LSU’s ring of fame. And he is certain Fournette should become the second member of LSU’s exclusive Heisman Trophy club.
“If I could send my vote in right now I would and you know who it would be for,” Cannon said. “If Leonard keeps it up, there won’t be any reason to even vote for second or third place.”
1008151421a-1
The two running backs – the elder nicknamed “Legend” in Louisiana and the younger bidding for the same – met once. It was at LSU’s spring scrimmage, an event Cannon attends each year. Fournette was then a senior at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans but had committed to LSU.
“Just a great kid,” Cannon said. “Smart, humble, and of course a magnificent athlete.”
Fournette insisted this week he isn’t thinking about the Heisman, putting the emphasis on No. 7 LSU staying undefeated when it hosts South Carolina in a game moved from Columbia due to epic floods there. Flooding is a darker thread that links not only South Carolina and Louisiana, which endured Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 10 years ago, but also Fournette and Cannon.
When Cannon was a boy in eastern Mississippi, his father lost the family farm to high water. When Fournette was a boy in New Orleans, he found himself sitting atop an interstate bridge in searing heat looking down at the filthy water that had inundated his city. Both men moved from that flooded root to football stardom in Baton Rouge.
“Leonard and I are water-related, you might say,” Cannon said.
Today, Cannon runs the dentistry program at Angola. Though he was never an inmate there, Cannon has more than a passing familiarity with prison. In 1983, Cannon went to a minimum security federal penitentiary in Texas after being convicted of counterfeiting. He was released after three years for good behavior.
Cannon earned a DDS degree after playing 10 years in the AFL, and following his release he offered his services at Angola. Eventually, he became the medical director there and was credited with turning around a decrepit operation riddled with Louisiana cronyism.
Some things never change in Louisiana, but college football isn’t one of them. Fournette plies his trade in a stadium packed with more than 100,000 people and before a national audience of millions. LSU was on television three times during Cannon’s four years there. From its six-story athletic department headquarters, LSU’s sports information department keeps people constantly updated on Fournette’s achievements. In Cannon’s day, the department was an office in a Spartan dorm room within Tiger Stadium in which two men shared a desk and a phone.
This year, Cannon attended the Auburn game in which Fournette rushed 19 times for 228 yards and three touchdowns. The highlight move there, the sort pundits claim a Heisman winner must have, came when an Auburn defender tried to tackle Fournette high and, without breaking stride, Fournette simply shrugged him off and continued to the end zone.
Cannon chuckles at that memory – “They’d had enough of Leonard by then,” he said of Auburn’s defense. But it was another carry, on which he watched Fournette instinctively find a hole inside the play’s designed route, make a smooth half-step to his right, and then in two more steps be back at full speed, that astonished Cannon.
“People say, ‘Legend, you used to run like that,’ and I say, ‘I used to dream I ran like that,’” Cannon said.
In one other respect, too, Cannon said Fournette may have his number: Fournette will return for his junior season and perhaps be the favorite only the second man to win the Heisman Trophy twice.
“When he does that move in the end zone, strikes that pose?” Cannon said in reference to the bronze stiff arm that represents the Heisman. “He needs to hold up two fingers. The next time he does that, I’d like to see him put up two fingers.”
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:09 pm to TexAgChill
glad we can't count on aggies for all LSU-related news
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:11 pm to tLSUtiger93
quote:
glad we can't count on aggies for all LSU-related news
quid pro quo
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:12 pm to tLSUtiger93
You literally just made a post about A&M. 3 minutes ago.
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:13 pm to TexAgChill
Good read on a legendary SEC player
Posted on 10/9/15 at 2:13 pm to Daowna
quote:
You literally just made a post about A&M. 3 minutes ago.
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