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RIP Billy Cannon

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by jr/shotglass, May 20, 2018.

  1. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    First big college star to sign with the AFL, too.
     
  3. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Hard to find a better story in big-time college football than Billy Cannon, All-America hero and convicted counterfeiter.
     
  4. cyclingwriter2

    cyclingwriter2 Well-Known Member

    And was not the basis for DeFord’s “Everybody’s All American.”
     
  5. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

  6. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    Cannon was not only named the SEC’s Back of the Decade in the 1950s, but in an era when a team's best players competed on both sides of the ball, he also was the Defensive Back of the Decade.

    I like this part best.
     
  7. Art Schlichter's predeccessor and role model.
     
  8. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    That's not really fair, is it?

    Schlichter is more like Lawrence Taylor, or Strawberry & Gooden. Hooked on an addiction over and over and over ...
     
  9. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    The front and sports covers were impressive too.

     
  10. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    The thing about Billy Cannon that stood out was his willingness to address the bad stuff. There was a piece on College Gameday a number of years ago about how he’d visit and care for inmates pro bono.
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Maybe not the book, but the movie damn sure was based on Cannon.

    But yeah, the book was set at UNC and supposedly based largely on Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, who was playing for the Redskins when Deford was growing up in Baltimore.
     
  12. I have never seen that movie.
     
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