re: Best 2 sport athlete of all time? LSU

Cannon may have been the best natural athlete I ever saw - I went high school with him.

The dashes & shot were very unusual & he other their natural ability. One day during track practice he decided to run the hurdles until coach McCoin saw him & almost had a heart attack screaming at him to get off the track.

He also ran anchor on 440 & 880 yd relays. He also started on the high school basketball team.

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Best 2 sport athlete of all time? LSU

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What is amazing to me by 90% of the responses is that most only go back 10-15 years. Some of you kids need to get Pete Finney and Dan Hardestys books.
You will find out that LSU was playing football before Nick Saban got here!!

Like a few intelligent folks have already said- the answer is Alvin Dark.

Read about him. He was an incredible baseball and football player at LSU, an all-star in the majors (who deserves to be in the baseball Hall of Fame), and a successful World Series-winning manager.

Billy Cannon is a solid second.

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Bench pressed 270# in 1957; which at the time was 10# less than the Olympic record.

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This isn't right. Per Wikipedia, it was over 400 in 1953. My dad played football at USL from 58-62 and benched 400 lbs (he told me Red Lerille put 400 on the bar and told him it was 390 to trick him)

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Cannon may have been the best natural athlete I ever saw - I went high school with him.

The dashes & shot were very unusual & he other their natural ability. One day during track practice he decided to run the hurdles until coach McCoin saw him & almost had a heart attack screaming at him to get off the track.

He also ran anchor on 440 & 880 yd relays. He also started on the high school basketball team.

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Plus he was dang good as Defensive football player, too

CJ3 FTW

I will vote for Chad Jones. Cannon was first and foremost a football player. Track was an afterthought. Holiday was a track star and basically a track athlete in a football uniform. McDonald was a great pitcher who played basketball as an off season hobby. Chad Jones excelled at both football and baseball. He was a great safety and an major factor on a National Championship baseball team.

Best "athlete" -

1. Cannon - likely could have broken the world record in the decathlon.

2. Dark - should be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Other notables:

3. Miley (excellent QB, immediate starter at SS for the Angels. Who knows what the limit would have been on his career? I once saw him make an impossible catch in centerfield, and while laying on his back double up the runner who had left second presuming the ball would fall in, to win an SEC game in the bottom of the ninth. Yeah, I know he was a SS, but he caught the ball in center.)

4. Mouton (sometimes starter in BBall, very good pro outfielder.)

5. Holliday (NCAA champ sprinter, more than a mere contributor in football, despite some limitations catching and holding on to the ball.)

Overlooked:

6. Devery Henderson (anchor on NCAA record 400m relay and 4x400 and starting receiver on Superbowl Saints). (If you include guys like Kennison. Slip Watkins? Xavier Carter? Come on, man...)

7. Chad Jones could have played pro football and pitched as a reliever in baseball, but his college career in the latter was limited, and of course his pro careers never happened.

Don't know if any of the track guys could shoot a basketball or hit a baseball - I know that many of the football players were terrible at those from playing against them.

A number of football linemen also have thrown the shot or discus. There was one D-line guy on the track team who I saw run a credible leg on the 4x400 relay when LSU fielded two teams of runners and needed an eighth guy. I don't remember his name.

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Johnnie Robinson (also an all American)

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IIRC he was also an All-American tennis player. He has to get points for most unusual combination.

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