BATON ROUGE — Its hard to believe 50 years has passed since Billy Cannon’s legendary punt return against Ole Miss on Halloween night in 1959.
But Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of Cannon’s historic run that helped lead No. 1 LSU past third-ranked Ole Miss 7-3. His 89-yard punt return for a touchdown helped clinch the 1959 Heisman Trophy and remains the single greatest play in LSU football history.
However, Cannon’s run might have been lost in time had it not been for another critical moment on that foggy Halloween night a half-century ago. On fourth and goal from the one, Ole Miss running back Doug Elmore was stopped short of the goal line by Warren Rabb, and who else, Billy Cannon.
The goal line stand secured the 7-3 victory for the Bayou Bengals and helped launch Cannon’s punt return into the college football history books and LSU lore forever.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of that historic night, the Jack & Priscilla Andonie Museum has invited Cannon and Rabb to the museum on Saturday afternoon from 12:30-1:30 p.m. to greet fans and sign autographs.
Due to time restrictions, the museum asks fans to limit the number of articles to be signed to two per person. For a small donation, the Andonie Museum will be providing prints for fans to have signed.
For more information, contact Andonie Museum director Bud Johnson at 225-578-3828 or Bud@lsualumni.org.
The Jack and Priscilla Andonie Museum is home to LSU’s Athletics history. The museum, located at the Lod Cook Alumni Center, is full of artifacts and memorabilia from the Andonie’s personal collection totaling 13,000 pieces. The museum is open Tuesday ? Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. on the weekends. On home football weekends, the museum is open from 9 a.m. to two hours prior to kickoff.
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