Bobby Pope: Derrick Henry should add to SEC's Heisman tradition

After seven weeks of the college football season, LSU running back Leonard Fournette was the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, which will be awarded Saturday night in New York.

But then he had to face the vaunted Alabama defense and managed just 31 yards on 19 carries, and since that game his Heisman stock has fallen like a lead balloon. In fact, he is not even one of the finalists invited to the presentation ceremony.

Fournette was hoping to become the second LSU player to claim the famed statue. The only Tigers player to take the Heisman is halfback Billy Cannon back in 1959. Cannon was the mainstay of that LSU team that had won the national championship a year earlier.

I remember listening to most of the LSU games on my Zenith radio, which seemingly could pick up any radio station in the country at night. That radio was my outlet to listen to big-time rock and roll disc jockey Dick Biondi at WLS in Chicago, to KMOX in St. Louis where I heard Jack Buck's play-by-play of St. Louis Cardinals baseball games and to WLW in New Orleans, which carried LSU football.

Paul Dietzel was the LSU head coach, and I especially liked the three different units that he employed -- the white team that played both offense and defense, the go team, which played offense, and the Chinese Bandits unit, which was the defensive specialty squad. Dietzel was known as "Pepsodent Paul" because of his toothy smile.

The LSU game I remember most was Cannon's 89-yard Halloween night punt return against Mississippi during the 1959 season that gave his team a 7-3 win. Going into the game, the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the nation and Ole Miss was No. 3. J.C. Politz was behind the micraphone for the LSU broadcast and described it this way, "Billy Cannon watches it bounce, He takes it at his own 11, comes back up field to the 15, stumbles momentarily, he's at the 20, gets away from one man, running hard at the 25, to the 30 (silence) he's gone."

Films from the game, show Cannon broke at least seven Ole Miss tackles during the return. Politz was doing the Tigers' play-by-play only because long time announcer John Ferguson, who served as their voice for 42 years, had taken a break to do Southwest Conference games. He returned in 1961 and stayed on until 1987.

Cannon scored the winning touchdown, and he and Warren Rabb (Cannon and Rabb played both offense and defense) stopped Ole Miss at the l-yard line with just 18 seconds remaining in the game to preserve the victory. The two teams had a rematch in the 1960 Sugar Bowl, and the Rebels got revenge in a big way by blanking the Tigers 21-0.

Cannon won virtually every college postseason award in 1959. How about these gaudy figures his senior season. He scored five touchdowns, averaged 76 yards per game, rushed for 598 yards, with a 4.2 average, and caught 11 passes for 166 yards. Fournette had a total of 691 yards rushing and eight touchdowns in his first three games alone this season.

Cannon was the No. 1 draft choice for both the NFL and the AFL. He signed with the Houston Oilers of the AFL and also spent time with Oakland and Kansas City during his 11 years in professional football. He then went on to dental school at Tennessee, where he became an orthodontist.

A series of failed business ventures led to his involvement in a counterfeit money scheme. Published reports say he printed $50 million in $100 bills and after being caught and convicted spent two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence in federal prison.

After being released from custody, Cannon regained his dental license and became the resident dentist at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where he still practices today. Inmates typically refer to him as "The Legend."

Several years ago, I called him and asked him to sign a football, which included all winners of the Heisman from the SEC for a benefit auction I was involved in, and he was very accommodating.

Look for Derrick Henry to walk off with Alabama's second Heisman in the past six years Saturday night in the Big Apple.

Contact Bobby Pope at bobbypope428@gmail.com

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Bobby Pope: Derrick Henry should add to SEC's Heisman tradition ."