Run to glory

• By SCOTT HOTARD
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 30, 2009 - Page: 1C

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The roar came all at once. Billy Cannon had covered 89 yards, busted seven Ole Miss tackles and launched himself into college football lore before he heard it.

A crowd of 67,500 screamed, rocking Tiger Stadium and drowning play-by-play man J.C. Politz’s signature call.

Cannon kept trucking.

“Once I got in the end zone,” Cannon said, “it came to you. It was just a burst of noise.”

Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, when LSU welcomes Tulane on the 50th anniversary of Cannon’s hallowed punt return, the same old tune will play.

This time, Cannon’s likeness will work its magic on the big screen: LSU’s new 80-foot wide, 27-foot high video board in the north end zone.

This time, 90,000-plus will watch.

“Every time we show the run, the fans react like it’s the first time they’ve ever seen it,” said Herb Vincent, a senior associate athletic director. “They start out with a low, muffled roar and then build to a crescendo when he scores the touchdown.”

Cannon always scores. LSU always wins.

That’s how the song goes.

But good melodies die hard. And Cannon’s game-winning return in a 7-3 epic is as sweet as they come.

“It’s probably one of the most revered plays in the history of college football,” Vincent said. “Everybody knows Billy Cannon — who he is. That was the biggest play of a very big career.”

And a very big game: the only matchup of top-three foes in Tiger Stadium annals.