Why because I can see the Cannon wasn't a true RB? Just an athlete put back there because why not. Like 14 year old travel teams who put their best player at SS, Pitch him every 5 days, and bat him 3rd? That doesn't make him the best SS ever or the best pitcher.

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Posted by larry289

Holiday Island, AR

Member since Nov 2009

3858 posts

Posted on 10/12/15 at 8:23 pm to ell_13

At Istrouma High, he set a state record with 57-4 in the shot put and ran the 100 yard dash in 9.7 seconds, At LSU, he threw the heavier (16-pound) college shot over 54 feet and improved his time to 9.4 seconds in the 100—becoming the first to put together such an unlikely double.

Istrouma coach James “Big Fuzzy” Brown started a weight training program in 1954, and Cannon—then a 168-pound sophomore—became the best-known prodigy of Baton Rouge weighlifting guru Alvin Roy. When Cannon’s weight reached 200 pounds, he was only 12 pounds short of the Olympic lifting record.

As a senior, Cannon gained more than 100 yards in 12 of Istrouma’s 13 games and scored 33 touchdowns. He had 178 yards rushing and three touchdowns as Istrouma capped its unbeaten season with a 40-6 rout of Fair Park in the state finals. Cannon was all-everything.

He led LSU to the national championship in the fall of 1958. He was not only the fastest player on that squad, but was one of the biggest. There was one 210-pounder on each of the three units (White team, Go team, Chinese Bandits). Nobody else outweighed Cannon by more than one pound.

After the 1958 season, Cannon finished third in Heisman Trophy voting behind Pete Dawkins of Army and Randy Duncan of Iowa. Nobody else was close, and Cannon led in the South and Southwest.

The following year, LSU’s bid for a repeat title came up inches short in a one-point loss to Tennessee at Knoxville. But the Heisman voting was a one horse race. Cannon piled up 1,929 points, more than tripling runner-up Richie Lucas of Penn State. He had more points than the combined totals of the next eight players, sweeping all sections of the country.

He probably already had the Heisman Trophy locked up when the No. 1-ranked Tigers played Ole Miss on Oct. 31, 1959—Halloween night. But Cannon erased all doubts that night, making the longest run in LSU history. It wasn’t the longest in distance, but it was the longest in legend.----------------------

Just to dispel a few of the idiots posting in this thread...taken from the LA Sports Hall of Fame webpage.