LORAN SMITH: Billy Cannon’s lone miss opened door for Georgia

When Billy Cannon died in late May, I thought of his indirect Georgia connection which likely is not remembered by many who wear Red and Black.

For all Cannon’s stuff of legend, there was one unsuccessful rushing attempt that opened the door for Georgia to win the SEC championship in 1959.

The preseason SEC hype focused on LSU, the defending national champion, Mississippi and Auburn. They were the favorites, and Georgia was picked to finish at the bottom of the conference.

Even if you are getting long in the tooth, you may recall Cannon’s 89-yard punt return on Halloween night against Ole Miss in Baton Rouge. The game was played in misty, foggy weather. Ole Miss held a 3-0 lead with propitious field position which, in those years, was considered a positive of such import that the Rebels of Johnny Vaught appeared to have a decided advantage.

When an Ole Miss punt took a high bounce deep at the LSU end of the field, Cannon instinctively caught the ball at his own 11, although his coach, Paul Dietzel, had a rule that punts were not to be fielded inside the 15. That caught Ole Miss by surprise. Cannon broke seven tackles, the last defender being Jake Gibbs, Ole Miss’ star player, to counter the LSU hero. Cannon then broke into the clear and sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown and a 7-3 victory.

A quarter century later, Georgia would line up Herschel Walker and Auburn would counter with Bo Jackson, both different style runners, especially Bo. Both had size, speed and power. However for sheer strength and speed afoot, it is easy for many, especially LSU partisans, to rank Cannon as the most powerful player in SEC history. Unlike Herschel and Bo, Cannon was required to play defense, where he excelled with a reputation that was comparable to his fabled reputation as a running back. He was the LSU punter and kicked extra points in high school.

At one time when Cannon was at LSU, there was speculation that if he trained to be a world-class sprinter that he was good enough to win Olympic gold, but if his choice was to become a weightlifter, he would be able to claim gold in that event. His 100-yard dash time was 9.7 seconds, making him the biggest, fastest back in football. He led LSU to the national championship in 1958 and would later win the Heisman Trophy, the second SEC player (after Georgia’s Frank Sinkwich) to be honored by the Downtown Athletic Club.

LSU was favored to win the national title in 1959, but upstart Georgia would get in the way. However, Bulldog serendipity would not surface until late in the season. The Tigers, after a week of celebrating in the Bayou, played Tennessee in Knoxville. Tennessee was good but not expected to be much of a threat versus Cannon and LSU.

(It was the late Tennessee coach Gen. Robert Neyland who espoused the view that you can’t get a team up for a peak performance more than one, perhaps, twice a year and that you never schedule two tough teams back to back.)

Based on “the General’s philosophy,” one might have predicted that Tennessee, playing at home, might catch LSU having an off day. It all came down to a late LSU touchdown that brought about a go-for-broke circumstance for the Tigers. Dietzel didn’t hesitate. He called for a two-point conversion with the ball going to the biggest, strongest football player in America.

If you don’t know the rest of the story, Tennessee swarmed Cannon, getting to him early and tackling him for a loss.

All of a sudden, Georgia, undefeated in the SEC, would play Auburn a week later for the SEC title. It would be an epic showdown with Fran Tarkenton throwing a fourth down pass to enable the Bulldogs to win the conference championship, the fourth and final title for head coach Wallace Butts.

Three sensational plays figured in the determining of the league championship that season: Cannon’s run versus Ole Miss in Baton Rouge, his failed two-point conversion attempt in Knoxville and Tarkenton’s pass.

Loran Smith is co-host of “The Tailgate Show” and sideline announcer for Georgia football. He is also a freelance writer and columnist.