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Two Heisman Trophy winners have come out of LSU. Right now, Joe Burrow is the toast of Tiger Land along with the whole state of Louisiana. He will be a Bayou Bengal legend for decades to come. But don’t forget Billy Cannon, the first LSU Tiger to win the Heisman. Older LSU fans will never forget that Halloween night back in 1959 when Cannon established himself as a true Louisiana sports legend.
You see, there are some things you just don’t forget. Where you were on 9/11, or when President John Kennedy was shot. Down here in the Bayou State, add to those special dates Halloween night 59 years ago when Billy Cannon made football history with his 89-yard run to beat Ole Miss and keep the Tigers undefeated. His story is the rise and fall, then the rise again by one of LSU’s alltime great sports heroes.
Even those who are not Tiger fans have to admit it was one heck of a run. This feat by Cannon allowed the Tigers to beat Ole’ Miss 7 to 3, and made him a celebrity for life. Paul Revere had his famous ride and Billy Cannon had his remarkable run.
Cannon went on to play professional football with the Houston Oilers and the Oakland Raiders. Then he went to dental school and built a successful dental practice in Baton Rouge. But then his celebrity world came crashing down, and I played a small role in his demise.
It was 1983, and I was in my first term as Louisiana Secretary of State. I was working at my office one afternoon when my secretary said there were two Treasury agents to see me, and they demanded immediate attention. They pulled out a hundred-dollar bill saying it was a fake, and that it had shown up in the Secretary of State’s bank account.
I had my staff go over all the various billing and deposit records, and we were able to determine that a local attorney used the hundred-dollar bill to pay for a corporate filing. We later learned that it was the first Cannon-made counterfeit bill to be discovered in the Baton Rouge area. Others quickly appeared, and a major money printing operation was broken open a few months later.
For years thereafter when I made speeches around the state, I relished in telling those in attendance how I knew the bill was counterfeit. “You know down at the bottom of the 100 dollar bill where it says ‘In God We Trust?’ Well on the Cannon 100-dollar bill, it said ‘Go to Hell Ole Miss.’”
Cannon quickly confessed and helped prosecutors crack the case wide-open. At the sentencing, Cannon told federal Judge Frank J. Polozola: “… what I did was wrong, terribly wrong. I have done everything within my power to correct my mistakes.”
As part of Cannon’s redemption, he took on the job of dentist at Angola State Penitentiary, an hour’s drive north of Baton Rouge. The guards and inmates alike love him up there. Do fans still hold a grudging disappointment with Cannon? Well, when he was introduced a few years ago at Tiger Stadium just after being admitted to the College Football Hall of Fame, the cheering went on and on.
Billy Cannon, like few others, has experienced the dramatic highs and lows of being a major sports hero in Louisiana. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that in life, there are no second acts. And Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can’t go home again. Billy Cannon proved them both wrong.
Joe Burrow’s legendary status still has lots of time to be extended. Even though his team lost in the Super Bowl this year, Joe Cool continues to be at the top of his game. He could well be the next Tom Brady, and give fans many special moments to cheer about for years to come.
Burrow or Cannon-who was the best? Does it really make any difference? They both are LSU greats who will go down in antiquity as really special talents who rightly deserve their legendary status in the annals of LSU history.