re: Cannon's run question...

Nice first post. Stop lurking.

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But I do firmly believe that a top college player in 1960 would have a pretty tough time making the starting lineup for a top program today. In just about every field of human endeavor, the standard of excellence has advance a lot in the past fifty years and football is no exception.

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Then you believe that in 50 years genetics have advanced humans so much that people 50 years ago (with same conditions as today) could not do what people do today. What a foolish thought. Do you think that the soldiers in WWII given todays training and technology could not compete with the troops of today due to this genetic superiority of today.

Those guys with the technology of today (training etc) could compete with anyone today. Genetic evolution has not changed that much in 50 years.

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Yes, Cannon was actually in the LSU record book for track for many, many years at 9.4 seconds for 100 yards. It's a fact. I wish those who don't know anything about what they are talking about wouldn't embarass themselves with stupid comments.

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I think we've brought Antonio around. It's a common mistake to see a 100y time and react in disbelief (thinking it's a 100m time). That started his disbelief, then compound that with a suspicion about "thumb-assisted" times, and it can sound like a tall tale. But, he was the SEC 100 yard champ, so it can't be "that" tall of a tale.

One of the older guys that I work with was not at the game but swears the he WAS listening to JC Politz call the game on the radio.

He claims that he distinctly remembers Politz exclaim "look at that son-of-a-bitch run" as the crescendo builds in the stadium and he counts down the yardage on the air.

I'm not claiming this is accurate. I'm just relaying the story as it was told to me, but listen to the audio of Politz's call on this video on youtube.

Billy Cannnon's run.

Right as Cannon crosses the 50 yard line, I swear it sounds like Politz's voice has been washed out of the audio, only to come back all of a sudden when Cannon reaches the 5 yard line.

It could very well be a case of his mic being drowned out by the roar of the crowd or some other simple explanation. Have a listen and tell me what you hear during that 3 second gap.

I'd like to say that the crowd alone drowned out the audio, but I heard his color guy (Hill, forget his first name) say he mistakenly turned down the volume instead of turn it up when the noise got so loud during the punt return.

He was not running fast at that time, much slower than when fresh and on a good field. The refs kept pace with him the last 30 yards. Another thing to consider is that the film is not necessarily real time. It is almost certainly not full speed.

Any tech geeks out there that would know about such things?

Dang.. got so caught up in the discussion I forgot to tell the best "Run" story ever ..

My Uncle and Aunt were at the game with their oldest son, who was about 4 at the time. As you know, the game was close, with Ole Miss ahead 3-0 most of the game. In the second half, the boy keeps whining about having to go to the bathroom, and they keep telling him to wait.

Finally, in the 4th quarter, he asks again as Ole Miss is lining up to punt. His Mom grabs him by the the hand and utters what have to be the most misplaced words ever in Tiger Stadium:

"Come on..I'll take you while they are punting so we don't miss anything"

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a lot of punts on 1st down

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Ole Miss punted on third down the entire second half - to guard against a bad snap. Don't remember any on first down/

They were playing for a 3-0 win all the way.

I'm only 42, so no I wasn't there. And when I was in my 20's I also thought that there was no way the "old guys" could have made it in "modern" football to anywhere nearly the same level.
I dunno, maybe watching things as I aged has changed my perspective- but I'll say this:
if Herschel Walker or Bo Jackson were to play today, they'd walk away with the Heisman. These guys were freaks of nature, and any modern training that's improved player times and stats, they'd have access to that too, and they'd likely be just as dominant. In the same light, I've never seen anyone throw a football remotely as hard as John Elway did back then. Not Farve at his best, not JaMarcus rearing back, nobody.
Can't think of any reason to believe it wouldn't be the same in Cannon's case. If he was 210 then, he might be 235 with less body fat and even more explosive muscle mass. So what if he was born a few decades ago? It isn't like there was another Cannon at LSU every year. There are occasionally guys that are just more physically gifted than the rest of humanity, and Cannon was one of them.

As for questioning whether Cannon could have been an Olympic-caliber athlete- look at the guys I named from the 80's. Say Elway decided to throw the javelin- I think he sets a long-standing record if he were to focus on just that. Bo? All-star in 2 major pro sports, and I remember him throwing a ball from the warning track to the backstop. Pretty sure he also could have thrown the shotput if he'd wanted to. Herschel was definitely an Olympic caliber sprinter, who happened to weigh probably over 240. These guys just loved football more than track and field.