Billy Cannon

• Born: August 2, 1937
• Birthplace: Philadelphia, Mississippi
• Died: May 18, 2018
• Place of death: St. Francisville, Louisiana

Also known as: William Abb Cannon (full name)

Early Life

Billy Cannon was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and grew up in a working-class area of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, known as Istrouma. He enjoyed an outstanding football career in high school and at Louisiana State University (LSU). He was awarded the 1959 Heisman Trophy as the outstanding national collegiate football player and was instrumental in the team’s gaining the national championship that year. He then went on to have a successful eleven-year career in professional football in the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) with the Houston Oilers, Oakland Raiders, and Kansas City Chiefs.

As a youth, Cannon was known to participate in various acts of general delinquency and violence. However, because he was such an outstanding athletic talent, several adults defended him, and victims rarely pressed charges. He once received a ninety-day suspended sentence and probation when one beating victim decided to press charges. Once his professional athletic career developed, Cannon associated with high-profile celebrities and was known to frequent horse races.

Criminal Career

Cannon demonstrated determination to develop a successful life after football. He attended the University of Tennessee and Loyola University of Chicago dental schools during the off seasons of his football schedule. His successful Baton Rouge orthodontic practice reportedly earned as much as $300,000 per year.

Canon’s financial problems began to surface in the early 1980s, when he was involved in numerous lawsuits tied to poor investments and reported gambling. At the time he faced these problems, Cannon associated with John Stiglets, a t-shirt printer and convicted counterfeiter. Cannon funded operations for the printing of approximately six million dollars’ worth of one-hundred-dollar bills.

A man who was caught passing the bad bills named Cannon as the ringleader of the counterfeiting operation. More than fifty federal agents worked on the case, and Cannon’s phones were wiretapped. Cannon ultimately took the investigators to his property, where he had been secretly hiding the bills in water coolers.

Legal Action and Outcome

Because Cannon pleaded guilty to counterfeiting and cooperated with the investigators and prosecutors, there is little public information about his counterfeiting operation. Although he was sentenced to five years in prison, he was released from the federal prison in Texarkana after quietly serving two and a half years and continuing his term at the Salvation Army halfway house in Baton Rouge.

Cannon’s license to practice dentistry was restored after his release from prison, but he faced serious financial problems and filed for bankruptcy in 1995 after failing to restore his dental practice. Bankrupt, his private orthodontic practice closed, and his Heisman Trophy reportedly sold to a Baton Rouge restaurateur, Cannon accepted a job as the head of the Angola State (Louisiana) Penitentiary Dental Clinic, where he led a relatively quiet life working and raising racehorses.

Over the years, as he proved successful in turning around the once dire situation at Angola, including organizing all medical affairs, he began to attend events and appear in public more. In 2008, he was finally inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Though he had to spend a night in intensive care following a stroke in 2013, he ultimately recovered and returned home. Continuing to work, he did not retire until January 2018. He died at his home in St. Francisville, Louisiana, on May 18, 2018.

Impact

Billy Cannon is primarily remembered for his football accomplishments, as well as for being one of twenty players who played with the American Football League for its full ten-year existence. In spite of his significant achievements that mean so much to football fans throughout the state of Louisiana, no significant book was written about his life until Charles N. deGravelles published Billy Cannon: A Long, Long Run (2015). The main character of a 1981 novel written by Frank Deford and titled Everybody’s All-American, LSU football star Gavin Grey, shares many similarities with Cannon, but the author claims his book is not a biographical depiction of Cannon.

Bibliography

Deford, Frank. Everybody’s All-American. Viking Press, 1981. Although Sports Illustrated writer Deford has denied that his novel, set in the late 1950s, is a portrayal of Cannon, the parallels between his life and that of protagonist Gavin Grey are patent, even if the crimes are different.

Goodman, Michael J. “An Utter Disaster: Former Football Star Billy Cannon.” The Sporting News, May 29, 1995. A detailed interview with Cannon around the time of his bankruptcy, likely his most candid thoughts on his criminal actions.

Litsky, Frank. "Billy Cannon, Football Star with a Troubled Life, Dies at 80." The New York Times, 20 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/20/obituaries/billy-cannon-dead-football-heisman.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Martin, Maggie. “Football Exploits Still Defining Moments for Billy Cannon.” Shreveport Times, Aug. 21, 2005, p. C1. Discusses Cannon’s football exploits in an attempt to resurrent Cannon’s reputation.

Peter, Josh. “Still Running.” Times-Picayune, December 31, 2003, p. C1. This newspaper article mentions Cannon’s willingness to talk about his football days and resistance to talk about his criminal actions.