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Former Heisman winner Billy Cannon suffers stroke

GrayTide

GrayTide

Hall of Fame
Nov 15, 2005
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Greenbow, Alabama
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoo...isman-winner-billy-cannon-hospitalized-021913

Did not see this posted anywhere. One of the all time greats in college football. His Halloween night run against Ole Miss is still one of the epic moments in SEC football history. His life is one of poverty, to national notoriety, to fall from grace, and rising again to being a hero to prison inmates in Louisiana. He was and will always be one of my childhood heroes. Prayers for a complete recovery Billy.
 
Saw him in Coach Bryant's 1st game in 1958 in Mobile. Like Bo and Herschell, he was an amazing blend of strength and speed. Was a sprinter and shot putter for LSU and I believe he was the SEC champ in both one year.

He remains one of the fastest players I've ever seen in uniform to this day and those uni's back then were a lot heavier than today.
 
Billy is as iconic to LSU as Joe Wille is to our folks. In the minds of their fans, both represent the apex of their respective programs.
 
Little known fact about that 1959 game against Ole Miss; Cannon played both ways. In fact after his run that put LSU ahead 7-3, Ole Miss drove inside the LSU five yard and Cannon was in on a game saving tackle to preserve the win. In his day he was every bit the equal of Herschel and Bo.
 
TommyMac said:
Saw him in Coach Bryant's 1st game in 1958 in Mobile. Like Bo and Herschell, he was an amazing blend of strength and speed. Was a sprinter and shot putter for LSU and I believe he was the SEC champ in both one year.

He remains one of the fastest players I've ever seen in uniform to this day and those uni's back then were a lot heavier than today.
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I was there too. How long did it take you to realize that the end zone stands had collapsed?
 
TIDE-HSV said:
I was there too. How long did it take you to realize that the end zone stands had collapsed?
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It took a while, it happened at the half and lots of folks were moving around so it wasn't as obvious as it would normally have been, Even then it took a while to find out exactly what happened.
 
TommyMac said:
It took a while, it happened at the half and lots of folks were moving around so it wasn't as obvious as it would normally have been, Even then it took a while to find out exactly what happened.
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I didn't realize it until all the ambulances started arriving...
 
GrayTide said:
Little known fact about that 1959 game against Ole Miss; Cannon played both ways. In fact after his run that put LSU ahead 7-3, Ole Miss drove inside the LSU five yard and Cannon was in on a game saving tackle to preserve the win. In his day he was every bit the equal of Herschel and Bo.
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Thanks for the post and very sorry to hear this Gray - here's a video which shows both his winning punt return and his game-saving tackle.

Prayers sent.

 
GrayTide said:
Little known fact about that 1959 game against Ole Miss; Cannon played both ways. In fact after his run that put LSU ahead 7-3, Ole Miss drove inside the LSU five yard and Cannon was in on a game saving tackle to preserve the win. In his day he was every bit the equal of Herschel and Bo.
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Of course almost everyone played both ways. LSU was different in that they had a 3rd string which only played defense. Dietzel named them the "Chinese Bandits," and convinced them they could stop anyone. He got a lot of mileage out of what was basically a bunch of scrubs. However, they gave a blow to the 1st and 2nd stringers...
 
chinese_bandits_1958.jpg

6a0412d8119ebbfcf093bec92feade7ff712df8b.jpg

images
White Team consisted of Billy Hendrix, Lynn LeBlanc, Larry Kahlden, Max Fugler, Ed McCreedy, Bo Strange, Mickey Mangham, Warren Rabb, Billy Cannon, Johnny Robinson, and Red Brodnax.

Go Team in the middle, White Team on the bottom. The stuff Tigah dreams are made of.
 
TIDE-HSV said:
Of course almost everyone played both ways. LSU was different in that they had a 3rd string which only played defense. Dietzel named them the "Chinese Bandits," and convinced them they could stop anyone. He got a lot of mileage out of what was basically a bunch of scrubs. However, they gave a blow to the 1st and 2nd stringers...
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Any chance that nickname would fly today?
 
My dad is an LSU fan (for reasons only known to himself, not me ;-) ). Bill Cannon was his favorite. Glad to hear he's recovering well. That being said, LSU -- no offense then and no offense now. Sorry. Couldn't help myself. ;-)
 
I was in the South End Zone stands that night. I remember it looked like a wave of people coming at us. I could see people thrown onto the field. After things settled down everyone in the South stands had to move over the chainlink fence in the back of the endzone. I was 13 and we were sitting down just out of the endzone and LSU tried a swing pass to Cannon and he came pounding into us and other players just crashed into the crowd on the ground. Scared me to death. Met him years later in Baton Rouge and he was recently released prom prison but he was a gentleman.
 
fjc666 said:
I was in the South End Zone stands that night. I remember it looked like a wave of people coming at us. I could see people thrown onto the field. After things settled down everyone in the South stands had to move over the chainlink fence in the back of the endzone. I was 13 and we were sitting down just out of the endzone and LSU tried a swing pass to Cannon and he came pounding into us and other players just crashed into the crowd on the ground. Scared me to death. Met him years later in Baton Rouge and he was recently released prom prison but he was a gentleman.
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Wow! You're the first one I've heard who was actually in the EZ that night...
 
Have to be REALLY old to have been there. Was my first Alabama game. Coach Bryant played at least one game a year in Mobile for a few years. Saw them play Tulane,Mississippi Southern, and NC State when they had Roman Gabriel at quarterback. My father always payed a few more bucks for sideline seats after the LSU game.
 
fjc666 said:
Have to be REALLY old to have been there. Was my first Alabama game. Coach Bryant played at least one game a year in Mobile for a few years. Saw them play Tulane,Mississippi Southern, and NC State when they had Roman Gabriel at quarterback. My father always payed a few more bucks for sideline seats after the LSU game.
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Well, that was my freshman year at Bama... :D
 
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