Halloween was good to Tiger fans in 1959 as LSU's Billy Cannon ripped off this famous 89 yard punt return to lead the #1 Bayou Bengals over the #3 Ole Miss Rebels. Cannon breaks 7 tackles in this clip, helping him to win the Heisman Trophy that year. Cannon was a local kid, who grew up in Baton Rouge before attending LSU and ended up helping the Tigers win the previous year's National Championship by throwing a halfback pass for a touchdown in a 7-0 Sugar Bowl win over #12 Clemson. His Jersey, #20, is the only number retired by LSU.
Life after college was up and down- Cannon is one of 20 players to play all 10 years of the American Football League's existence (he was a first rounder of the Houston Oilers, helping them win the first 2 AFL Championships). He then practiced orthodontics for a while, but also ended up serving time for counterfeiting. In 1986, Cannon sold his Heisman Tropy to Tom Moran, who keeps it in his Baton Rouge restaurant, T.J. Tibs. Part of the agreement for the down on his luck Cannon was that he would eat for free at the restaurant from then on. 1988 saw the debut of the film "Everybody's All American", which is rumored to be at least partly based upon Cannon (and partly on Washington Redskins/UNC footballer Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice). While the author of the novel, Frank Deford, denies any ties to either player, the movie was filmed mostly in Louisiana and involved several actual LSU home games.
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