Billy Cannon Run

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra and Greg Lafleur discuss Billy Cannon Book 

This is a review of Billy Cannon A Long Long Run

 

LD:

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up. It’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of count time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra formerly named Lyman White. Thank you for joining us today.

LD:

Today, I have a special guest, a special friend, uh, someone, we got a lot of history together. We’ve been talking, he been keeping up with the podcast and I really, really appreciate him, uh, tuning in on our podcasts on a regular basis. And we just want to have a, a great conversation now is going to be unusual because for real is the first time we could be doing this, but we’ve got a segment. We call the living legend segment, and this is going to be considered one hour. Live in legends. Yes, Greg is one of our living legends. We’ll be speaking about another living legend. So right now I want to introduce my dear friend and a teammate and we go back a long ways. And I thank you for being here, Mr. Greg Lafluer.

Greg:

Thank you for having me Lyman. I’m excited to see you.

LD:

Thank you for coming out here, Greg. I know you’ve been traveling all over the world every time I speak with you in another place, another country, and you, uh, I think you moved there. Where are you? Yeah,

Greg:

Well, I’m living in Seattle, Washington. Now. I’ve been blessed that I’ve been able to travel all over the world for the last couple of years. I’ve been to France, England, Germany, Italy, Colombia, Mexico, just Tokyo, Japan. Just the name of you.

LD:

Yes, yes. A few, a few major ones too. That I would be even more out of. When you say Africa next time. Of course, that’s

Greg:

Next on my list. Next spring, we plan to go to Spain and then Africa,

LD:

Africa, Morocco, that because that’s where the great Moors came from, who conquered Spain and rules banned for 700 years. I know you know about that history, right?

Greg:

Not as well as you do because you’ve been to Africa. That’s one reason I want to go is because when you came back from Africa, you were telling me how great the trip was. So when the opportunity presented itself, I thought about you. I’m like, well, Lama told me how great Africa was. I need to make that trip.

LD:

Well, I forgot we had a conversation about that back then. It did a lot. It, it took me somewhere that I didn’t even anticipate on being mentally and spiritually. It was a rude awakening. It was a great awakening. Also, maybe the frustrated irritated, because I felt I’d been lied to hoodwinked. Bamboozled I been had like great X said by the system they taught us is almost like in our podcast. We say for all so long, the system has taught you what to think. Count time here to teach you how to think. So trusting and believing that that’s what count time is doing. That’s what count time has been able to do. And today we’re going to have a special, uh, dialogue conversation. We’re going to be talking about it. Another one at LSU legends, Mr. Deli Canada, a few weeks ago. No, probably about a month ago. Uh, gray called me to tell me about one of the podcasts he had heard and what he thought about it. He was excited, elated Ellis regarding the cost and live long. What did you tell him? [inaudible]

Greg:

Oh, it was one of the best interviews I’ve ever heard at least sports interview ever heard because it was so in-depth and I don’t know how other people would receive that information, because if you did play sports, I don’t know how you’d hear it. But if you were a football player or anybody that was involved in sports, that was one of the most enlightening interview I’ve heard.

 

LD:

He touched me. You a good friend can call and tell you that, that that’s, that goes a long ways. Now truly, truly appreciate it. And I truly appreciate you being here. And because of that, he got excited. He started telling me about a book. He read it. Yes. Greg fluid. I do read the dub jacks. He was so excited and elated. He would just feel with John about this book. Uh, tell us a little bit about the book right quick. Well,

Greg:

You know, when I listened to your interview with coach Lynn and the blog, he started talking about certain things that I read in the book. And when I called you, I’m like, man, you really enjoyed this book because some of the stuff goes from the Blas in, in, uh, in your interview. I had already read it in the book, but the interesting thing was I was headed to Columbia global top Columbia, and I was in San Antonio and I needed to get a book because I can’t speak Spanish. So I needed a book to read while I’m in Columbia. So, you know, during my downtime, at least I’ll be reading because I can’t go and talk to anybody. So I was just looking for a book and I was in the bookstore browsing around and I saw this book with Billy Cannon’s picture on it.

Greg:

I’m like, well, if I’m gonna get a book, I will get the one about Billy Cannon. I’m not doing anything. So I just read that book. And then that book shook me up. I was because I can relate to everything that he talked about in that book, because I knew Billy Cannon LSU Great from 1972, he and, uh, Paul Hardy, the agriculture commissioner of agriculture, Gil Doscher flew to Ville Platte. And I picked, and, uh, Billy Cannon was with those two guys. And when I picked him up at the little airport outside of their plant and drove him to my parents’ house to meet with my father, my father said, do you know who that guy? And I’m like, no, I don’t know who he is. He said, well, that’s really cannon. Who’s Billy Cannon. He said, well, he won the Heisman trophy. So then I started paying attention to Billy Cannon and you know, he was at my parents’ house and I’m sitting there looking at this guy that was built so well. He had only been out of the league like three or four years. So, and a few years later I get recruited by LSU and now Billy Cannon and I have something in common. We both went to LSU. So that’s how my interest started in

LD:

Billy Cannon. It’s pretty interesting that he came to your house. He came

Greg:

To my house, they were campaigning for the 1972 election, the first election, Edwin Edwards one and Gill Dorsha and Paul Hartford was on that ticket back then you got to tell him who your dad, my father was Gervase from the floor and he was Edwin head was right-hand man, back in 1972, when he was running for governor for the first time

LD:

You got, you have a lot of history with this state is, uh, with LSU and your dad made a big, had a big impact on you coming to LSU and getting you involved with the community. So, I mean, we, he has a whole lot of history. We appreciate that. And I only know Billy by way of LSU ran it. One of the first golf tournaments. I was invited to the show with country club and I might’ve been, might’ve been me and one other brother there. And cause he lived in Sherwood forest at the time. That was my first time meeting him at a golf tournament probably in early, early eighties, like 81, possibly. So that was my first time meeting him and Jim Tilly both was a very respectful, just peer, very considered. They accommodated me. They knew I would kind of like out of, out of place in a lot of ways, but he was, they was very accommodating and very, very, a good guy.

LD:

So when Greg, he was so enthused and excited about the book, he said, he told me I need to read it. I’m thinking, man, I got some other stuff going on, tend to read a book right now. But he was so, uh, I asked him about it where I said, I’m gonna have to read this book. So I got the book started reading it. It is, it’s an awesome book. The book is titled Billy Canada, a long, long run look proud was written about four or five years ago, right before his transition when he passed on. And it’s a book covers a whole lot of his history. And even from Addie Nando, Billy Cannon was from Mississippi originally. So that was a great learning part right there. And sober you call

Greg:

It. I can’t remember his hometown, any

LD:

Soap, the show, Mississippi, Philadelphia, Mississippi. So he grew up in a small town and his mom, his dad dad’s name was harvest or Harvey and his mom name was Virgin. And it was a pretty good history. Let’s talk about, uh, what the [inaudible] matter of fact, we did, we got determined. This is going to be our first. So we talked, we discussing a book, I guess we know we got a great scholar, Greg Fluor. So people would be like electors. I don’t know what to call it sex. I guess we’ll call count time, booking, Clover, that booklet booking and clue. So I don’t know, but I appreciate you sending me a capita book. The book was really, really first-class it very engaging. They’re honest. You know, he bought for a lot of information.

Greg:

And what got me about the book lamin was that I’ve known Billy Cannon since 1972. And then when I came to LSU, you know, I got to know him even closer. And then when that incident happened with him, he kind of became a recluse. And so, and I always wondered why that hadn’t been a book written or a movie written, uh, made about Billy Cannon and come to find out. When I read the book, Billy Cannon didn’t want a book written by about him or move it down about him because he could have made a lot, a lot of money had he had a movie made by him about him, but that was not his thing. And he said in the book, the only reason that he let this writer write this book is because that guy worked at the penitentiary with him. He was a minister at the, at the, at Angola and he trusted the guy and he finally decided to, uh, do an interview with this guy and allowed him to write this book. And that was toward the end of his life because he didn’t walk people to totally know about him until toward the end. And that’s what I thought that was what was interesting when I first picked up the book,

LD:

When that movie came out years ago, when we was getting out of college,

Greg:

I can’t think of what he talks about it in the book. And he said they were trying to portray him, but that was not about him. They’ve tried to make a movie about him, but it didn’t.

LD:

That was not yeah. With the movie, but it did. But the movie we know was really dealing with, he was attempting to portray the cannon, but it was not the true story. They didn’t know, really have a story

Greg:

That slipped my mind, the name of that movie. Cause we all remember when they were filming that movie here in Baton Rouge,

LD:

Because I was like, I’ll look at the movie a few months back. Right. And, and I did not know coach SAM, Nader was in the booth that was interested, needs to see ghost data at a pretty beat over the Kevin comic. They call it Cammy. Gabriel appears right now in a culture culture in the movement. But it was a, it wasn’t a no that as we well know it, cause a lot of guys went out to, they asked former athletes to come out, talk, try out for the movie. Right. And a lot of players went out and I saw some of the guys in the movie. Yeah. So it was pretty good. But I put the deliver where we built the Canon plate. It wouldn’t do any of us playing at the time. So they would, that would made it kind of hard to, but, but deli in his book and in, in life too, he was very, he respected all people, you know, at the time he did see me.

LD:

Matter of fact, one of last time I really spent the time talking with him was when Nick Saban was in town, when Nick’s day would run, it won the national championship. I had a bunch of footballs I would to get side because saber signed the books when the ball was. And when I came out of the, uh, the facility with the bowels, the Canon was coming across the street. I said, Billy, so he’s, Hey, how you doing? We started talking, started engaging. So he said, uh, I say bad guys. We got all of them, all of them down bowls. I said, I just got upset and said he was offered some friends of mine who expert, uh, you know, one of the few national championship they had since yo D’s right. Yes. And I said, I wouldn’t get upset and say, I need for you to sign.

LD:

But two or three of them said, what my name would be. Why do you want my name on? I said, well, since you here, you don’t know the first, uh, national championship fee. I said, so it’s going to be, might have that much more value. I don’t know what happened to the balls or the way they are, but he did sign about, I had about eight and he signed about three of them for me. So that was the last time I seen him. But let’s talk what we want to start at there, but where the, what part that really captured you. And, and I

Greg:

Hope everybody go out and buy this book because you really enjoy it. Particularly if you’re an LSU fan or a person that grew up in Louisiana, it’s not just an LSU book. It’s a really a Louisiana book, but what stood out the most was that, and more, and I don’t want to say too much about books because I want people to read it, but I want to talk about this because this is knowledge that you can find anywhere else. The thing about Billy Cannon that I had heard about that when I first came to Baton Rouge in 76 to go to LSU, Billy Cannon is the first athlete to lift weights. Most people don’t realize that, uh, weight lifting was taboo for sports. Back in the day, people thought weight lifting would make you slow and muscle down that type of stuff. Well, there was a gentleman named Alvin Roy who was from the stroma high school and he was in the military. And because he traveled all over the world like Russia, Germany, and the Russians and the Germans were always beating the U S and powerlifting, would he learn what they were doing in Europe? And he brought that same method back to Baton Rouge. So he went back to his high school, Istrouma high school and he went to talk to the head football coach and ask him, could he let him work out for the football team? Well, that was such a taboo to lift weights, to play football. The coach like, ah, I don’t know about that.

LD:

Who’s who’s the coach, uh, fuzzy brown coach. That’s correct.

Greg:

And, and uh, so he said, well, look, I’ll let you work with the tractor. So he first worked with the track team and Billy Cannon was on the track team and did the Canon speed increase so much that it convinced the football coach. Okay, I’ll let you work with the football team. Well, Billy Cannon is the only person I know of my entire life that won the a hundred yard dash and the shot put in the state track, meet those two competition. Just don’t add up, you know, either you’re a sprint or a jump or a field guy with the wind, the shot put and the hundred yard dash and 200 in the state meet. So that proved that weightlifting increased your speed, your size and your, uh, and your quickness. So not only did he win the state track, meet his high school team, won the state championship in football, his junior year.

Greg:

And then they won the state championship again, his senior year and would have it that Paul diesel came to recruit, uh, Villa Canada come to LSU. Well, Alvin Roy convinced Paul [inaudible] and Paul Leeson was against it, but he convinced Paul Dietzel to lift weight. Well, LSU was the first college football team in the nation to lift weight. They won the national championship in 1959. And then, uh, Billy Cannon not only won the Heisman trophy. He was the first player picked in the draft. And I didn’t know that. I didn’t know if he was drunk. First player picked in the draft. Now he didn’t go to the NFL because the year he got drafted in the NFL, they started the NFL. And then Billy Cannon went to the Houston olives and he stayed with the olives. Then he went to the Raiders.

LD:

Yeah. The first time with the Rams. It matter of fact that the book said that he signed this contract after the sugar bowl game, right on the field, on

Greg:

The field. And then the, all us got him out of that contract. And you know,

LD:

And at that time I think the contract was worth 30,000 a year. And that was like a multimillion dollar contract back in those days. Yeah.

Greg:

And the other thing that was interesting about the book is that while he was playing professional football, he went to medical school in the off season. And now, you know how hard it is just to play a sport. I can’t imagine going to medical schools during the off season and to prepare to play in the national football league at the same time. I’m like, I was amazed to read all this

LD:

In, in the learn that, that Billy, when he moved from Mississippi, they had a farm. Uh, his dad had a farm, they lost the farm, moved to Memphis, moved to Tennant, Memphis, Tennessee. They moved to another part of Tennessee looking for work in standard R uh, during the time of the, of world war one, I believe a world war II, world war one standard are in Baton Rouge, but nice. Which now we call Exxon was hard. Cause they was producing a lot of our robo or whatever they need for the military. So that was a lot of money. It’d be in the bedroom area. So he said the family moved here for that to get some work. And Billy that’s when he began to, yeah, he got in a lot of trouble, even back then, he talked about the trouble that he got into. He was called himself a little, they call him a third so far for word third was popular. And he said it was, it was called him a third back then. Yeah.

Greg:

And that’s the part I would like for people to read because I had no idea he failed in the eighth grade. And then when he repeated the eighth grade, the second time he made all A’s. And as you know, he never had trouble with school after he flopped the first time in the eighth grade and everybody realized he was a great student, as well.

LD:

Matter of fact, he was really, he was, he wasn’t a big guy at all. You know, he went into his junior, senior weight, put on a lot of weight. He weighed at, I think 1 25, 1 50, right. Most, uh, you know, uh, first year too and high school, but he had great speeds. It, his speed was there when he put on that when they haven’t Roy came about and Roy was here when we first got to LSU.

Greg:

Yeah. Albemarle was around the Baton Rouge area when we got to LSU, but he was the speed coach for the Dallas Cabos strength, conditioning coach for the Cowboys around that time. But Alvin RA built the first gym in the United States. So you see those anytime Fitness’s planted, all those gems, the first gym was built in Baton Rouge in 1955. And it was on Oklahoma street right across where the old prince Murad was. If you went across the street on Oklahoma street, it was an old

Greg:

House to the left. It’s right off of Nickerson drive right

Greg:

Off of Nicholson drive. And, uh, the house was on the left and, and they, they turn it into a gym. And when I first got to LSU, my first time going to a weight room was at that Alvin Roy gym. And that was back in the summer of 1976. And then we started working out, uh, they made a weight room in the stadium. It was not very big.

LD:

So when you first got Delancey, there was no weight room

Greg:

In his head one, but they would still work out.

LD:

Yeah. I know when I got a lot of guys was still going to win. I forgot. I came the next year. It was still going, going. A lot of guys wanted to be, he wasn’t near as much anymore. Right. But a lot of guys wanted him to,

Greg:

Well, I didn’t realize it was still there when you cave.

LD:

Okay. Because it got a lot of, a lot of guy was going. I never went, I don’t remember ever going.

Greg:

The first time I got here, I went to the Alvin Roy gym before I even went to the LSU was wait room. So

LD:

Billy flop in the eighth grade repeated a angry, went back to school with a different attitude and decided he was going to do better for himself. And he excelled in academics. So he knew that he was capable of doing the work, not knowing that he was going to exhale to the level he did in sports. So he was a three sport guy, right? Basketball, football, and track and field. And he’d done exceptionally well at all three, but he said he was better in track then football then basketball. So that was pretty interesting to do that at Dillard, uh, you know, play. But there was one thing that happened to him that his dad, his dad got hurt, uh, working at Exxon Exxon standard or at the time he was, uh, he was the two man, I guess he did a lot of, um, I guess we call mechanical type of work now, you know, preparing, uh, working on different, uh, pipes or whatever it might be. And he slipped off the top of a scaffold, fell out, hurt himself and never really recovered. And there was a network was able to go back to work with the applicator’s leg, amputate his leg after almost a year, the opportunity is late. So he wasn’t able to go back to work. So he became the wife, Virgin had to go to work and he had to stay home and be a stay at home mom, which effected his two boys, Billy and Harvey Jr. Probably was what about three years? Four years old. And Dylan,

Greg:

Maybe two years

Greg:

Older than me. And he did well in sports too. Right.

Greg:

They won a state championship with his brother two

LD:

In a row. Yeah. His brother wants to have a role in football, football, and football. So, you know, all I was at the now what, the interesting thing about the story bill is that his dad told him that their genes came from athletic genes gave away. You remember that part helped me with, that came from when he lived in, uh, Mississippi, he said the great grandmother was married to an Indian. Yes. And he said, they came from the Indian side of the family. And that was pretty interesting when he talked about it,

Greg:

See, you remember this? You just read it because I read this a while back and you bringing all this back to me.

LD:

Yeah. That was that. Cause that was saying we’re holding on an Indian. So it would be, you know, they got a, you know, he got a combination of, uh, genes with him and I was in there. And also he talked about when Billy talked to, he made it a point to make a comment about his best friend when he was a real young boy was a little black boy in Mississippi that he hung with it. He grew up with, in a Tennessee that he had, he got to know, and that was it like when his close close friend. And it was just, you know, he made certain points of emphasis on certain things that he thought wasn’t that I guess he was important to him in his growth, his growth in, when he came to Louisiana based when he was saying that Mississippi was more integrated than

LD:

Louisiana. Right. So

Greg:

Because he never played with a black player, you know, neither in high school college. And once he got to professional football, that was the first time he ever had a black teammate. But when he was growing up around a stroma area, he always played with the black kids. You remember that part, you know, he played with the black kids. So it was, he had no prejudice in him. He, uh, he looked at people as they were, and he didn’t have any bias toward anyone. Right. You could tell when you met him, he was that with,

LD:

Yeah. He treated everybody. He was just straight up type of guy. And you know, then you start thinking about LSU. LSU was one of the last teams to do what LSU

Greg:

Was the last team in the nation to integrate its athletics. Uh,

LD:

Even old miss visit. The state had integrated

Greg:

The Southeastern conference. The conference that LSU belongs to was the last conference in the nation to integrate. And LSU was the last school in the conference. They integrate LSU was dead last when it came to integrate in as athletics, as a

LD:

Matter of fact, you and I were there. We had some tough times dealing with things at LSU. Cause we was, it wasn’t the first, but we were still close to it. We weren’t that far behind. And there was a lot of issues and concerns, but when it came to what they call black and white right back then, and we, uh, we’re not going to talk about a lot of that right now, but it was a lot of, a lot of different diff the sermon.

Greg:

You see the alarm alarming. The first black athlete to play at LSU was college temple in 1969. And it took two or three years later for LSU to have his first black football player. And that was Mike Williams and Laura Hinton. So that was 1972. And I got to LSU in 76. Mike Williams had just finished his last year. I didn’t get to play with Mike and lore

LD:

College got in 1970 or was it seven it’s. Okay. But you know, neither of us got, had a chance to play with the great Mike Weaver and Laura Hinton. Matter of fact, it’s just now I think this coming Monday, the, in the sea of LoRa Hinton can be on a hall of LSU hall of fame, uh, that they can be voting on this Monday at LSU to make him, uh, you know, why not? I mean, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s a outstanding man and the community hard worker and he did done his, done his part to deserve it. But, uh, Billy was very versatile in a lot of ways, you know, not just his personality, where he treat people, he had this, what they call a bad boy kind of attitude to that at, uh, like that John Wayne and Elvis Presley, [inaudible] he, he had a unique kind of person that he was, he wasn’t afraid, you know, stood for what he believed in. He took a chance, you know, he would, you know, I, I could not believe that he would just go out and Rob people. So he would do it, things like that at a young age,

Greg:

When people, when he was a junior in high school, he almost didn’t play his senior year in high school. Uh, they had to make an exception for him to play because he was in trouble. He got in trouble and find it, the courts dropped it or what? I can’t remember the details right now because I read the book, uh, a while back. But, uh, thank God that the, the justice system dropped it. And then he could go on and play his senior year.

Greg:

Right. Because Billy, after his dad, Harvey gotten hurt, there was no money coming in. That’s correct. And him and his brother also, he said, he worked at a man does meat market, which is still located right downtown now, nearly near the state Capitol. And he worked there as a young boy. He say packing and unpacking chicken and sausage. And in a whole half of a cow, he said, so he was, he was a hard working young man. But when his dad got hurt, there was, there was all traumatized by that. Cause his dad being the bread winner, the stable part of the family, your mom didn’t work at all. So after a while, he had to figure out how to, how to survive, how to keep money in his pockets when he was out there, dug it. And I guess in a convenient, different, you know, the people in the community, totally the doors don’t mess with it.

Greg:

Like, you know,

Greg:

Stay away from here. And, but because of everybody, the coaches, his teammates, the teachers, everybody liked him. He knew he was a smart, smart guy. He knew he was a good guy. So they really would do it all. He can, they help him to make sure that he succeeded. I mean, they all do bad with his day. But Billy also talked about, and this, I guess this is why I really liked the book too. He emphasized that at the stroma games that, although there was none, not one player after they sit on the team, they would allow them to go to come watch the games. There was a lot of them to go in the south part of the stadium to watch the game. But bill has told a story too, that came along with that, that really worked hustling cellular and pro programs at Memorial stadium when Kalin high played when Southern university played. Right. And he said that he used to watch the great old deposing. You remember that guy? Yeah. So was the poster was a running back for Southern university. He said he watched over the poses. School is out LJ. LJ was, and I moved through the holes and he made all these long run. He said, that’s what he wanted to be like, oh, the pool.

Greg:

Yeah. I was interested to me, but you know, he has, that was his idol only. Oh, the poses. Yeah. It always, the poser was, uh, one of the best running backs. And he was a tennis player at Southern and he played, I can’t remember who he played for, but he played in the NFL for a few years and he owned a gas station. The last time I saw old pools, it, it was quite awhile ago. He had a cup of beans in north Baton Rouge. So I don’t know if you remember.

Greg:

Well, I know of him, but I don’t. I’ve never met him. Well, he was in

Greg:

Bed. He lived in bedrooms for quite, quite some time. Had I believe he passed in bedroom because he had a gas station right there in north bedroom. But he also has another bit, I can’t remember what type of business it was because a friend of mine played my friends. My dad played with him and that’s how I had a chance to meet. And everybody was bragging on how grateful I read it back. I smoothed the runner. He was, and then they just talked about it, but they still rebuild a cat, a book. And he made quite a few reference about the great old deposing that’s who he wanted to be like.

Greg:

And I guess Billy, Kevin had a little something to do with the things we got involved with. We got to LSU and I thought it was interesting when he talked about how he’d sold his tickets in high school to make a little extra money. You know, he bought the tickets, you know, you’d inflate the price a little bit and he’d go out and sell those tickets. And, uh, people couldn’t believe he would buy so many tickets at one time because like, he won’t be able to sell those things, but he did and made money. Well, when he got to LSU, he did the same thing. And when we got to LSU, I didn’t know what that was originated from. But I think maybe that’s where that came from. When we got to LSU, I heard

Greg:

That Billy would buy a whole sections of LSU tickets or just whole sections. Cause that’s why he walked away because he figured if I buy the ticket,

Greg:

Cause he can sell his chicken in a different motivation. He was a businessman. He was a businessman

Greg:

Ways to make it, make it for himself and his family, which was pretty ingenious. And, and

Greg:

The ticket manager at LSU at the time, they couldn’t understand what he was doing when he bought all those tickets at one time, because it was a risk because if LSU would not sell it out, the first time they ever sold out was when you heard cultural law, talk it on your show. When they played together, they had that first sell out at the LSU at that time. So he bought all those tickets and they were able to sell out the stadium. So he made good on his, on the risks

Greg:

He did very well. And when we was there, uh, that was that we talked about it a little bit later, but we did sell out tickets. But also Billy talked about not just selling the tickets. I can remember the part came, bring it back and working to bring it back, memory field. We don’t want to bring it back, but you just want to tell the tickets another aspect of that, that he had figured out. But also he talked about in this way, I really connected with it. You remember the great eight? Pardon the airport. You know, he talked about airport in the book. My junior year, I worked for airport. You have a workforce.

Greg:

I never worked for him, but y’all got paid well paid. Well, and I always wanted to get off on the stuff. Lives, got to work as a team with ed fund. I had to do that. You know, hard labor job. Yeah. But no, you have to be, you have to be special to work with ed. Oh, I realize that not everybody got to work with him.

Greg:

I had a chance to work with it. Like you said, he looked out for us.

Greg:

He put me

Greg:

Partner queen. Uh, we went over there, the big cages and then he called me in to come. And he was [inaudible] at this hotel on, on airline highway came every day. But the hotel, it was the bell. The bell is further back down on the coming back south. It might’ve been what the bay about the hotel. It’s a small place right next to all star cars, car dealership. That’s what we used to go meet him all the time. Him and his partner, big deal. They call it a big deal. But I can’t remember his name. He was a guy like the bouncer. So he would act to meet us there if you have you sit to eat with it. But we didn’t realize until we did, we left years later that we really was a lot. All of us was a danger because people had threats out on this life. We didn’t even know that.

Greg:

Yeah. He was close friends with, huh?

Greg:

Jimmy Hoffa. He testified against off. So we need to blame LSU for putting us at home.

Greg:

Cause we didn’t know that all that was going on only the superstars. See, you didn’t even realize you were a superstar. I didn’t know that you got to work with ed part and the Teamsters. I worked at big Cajun too, but I was a laborer. I had to go to the local union place and your check to get assigned, to go work somewhere else. The star players got to work as Teamsters where y’all just got to ride a truck, just drive around in a truck. And we out there shoveling digging ditches. And so you could put pipes in the ground at big Cajun when they were, I worked with the pipe fitters, but I had to work with the ones digging the ditches. So they put the pipes

Greg:

In, but we had to come pick y’all up.

Greg:

So yeah, that’s what girl did go pick us up.

Greg:

So Billy said that he had been a dealer work with work for the teachers, right? [inaudible] he really, he looked out for each left out for us. He did it. He did a great job. I have never forgot, always think about airport. And he really looked out for us and I really appreciate it for that. So bill had that experience and he moved on from winning championships from trouble, young man, but from a great family, mother fault who really cared and respected and show him a lot of love. He, the one chose to go the other direction and he shares a lot of this in his book. And we do know that later on that Billy had gotten into some serious trouble and we know what all that, but that’s about what you want to share that right quick.

Greg:

Yeah, because I always wanted to know why would Billy Cannon do something like that? You know, because we knew he gambled, uh, he was a big horse fan. You know, he go to horse races and when that incident happened, people thought it was because he was betting on horses and lost all his money. And that’s what everybody thought for a long, long time. And I’m in. And so when they wrote the book, he got into details on what happened to him, which caused them to get into the trouble that he got into. And it was because the economy had fallen apart in the eighties, he had bought all types of real estate. And when, when the bottom fell out, he was in debt so bad. And that’s how he got, uh, involved with that kind of fit. That was a guy I don’t, I don’t want to say too much about it, but that was a guy in Baton Rouge who had already been arrested for counterfeit.

Greg:

And he knew that that, and the guy just made a comment to him and in joking and Billy Cannon thought about it and you’re like, well, maybe we should try that or something. And that’s how he got caught up in that counterfeit thing is because his is, uh, cause he had a very successful dental practice, but he was getting into real estate and the bottom fell out. And that’s why he got it, uh, got into that counterfeit thing to try to make money, to pay the debt that he owed on all the real estate that had fallen apart.

Greg:

But even as a young man, he was a pool hustler. He used to hang out at the pool hall. So he called himself like a pool shark or figuring out ways, make a hustles, even hustling most of his life. And you know, you and I both, you know, Billy got some serious trouble, but you and I have went through different things in our lives. Uh, like, you know, I had to do time too. So for Medicaid fraud, you went through some things that use the cues, uh, you know, say falsely accused of something that caused you embarrassment, heartache stress and in annual job. Right?

Greg:

So I guess we all, the three of us all have some income. We all said we can add on to what we have in common,

Greg:

Stupid, uh, whatever was it, uh, what, what his name is, uh, Tupac. I’m going to be the three most mornings, the three boats that you just, just to kind of highlight your situation that you went through quite a few years ago and you finally got vindication

Greg:

This year, right? Well, no, it was, it took a whole year before I could go to court. And then it’s very rare that somebody that that’s arrested for soliciting a prostitute goes to court and fight it in court because it’s, it’s a very low crime other than the publicity that you get. But I had no choice, but to go to court and defend myself because I didn’t do anything wrong. And, and luckily, uh, this undercover police officer that came up to me and started soliciting me, and this was on a Sunday afternoon, at six o’clock in downtown Houston, right by the Toyota center weather with the rockets,

Greg:

You, you was going to a championship game. What

Greg:

Was the final four for Houston for the final four? And they play on that Saturday and that Monday, and this was

Greg:

2011. So you talked about 10 years ago. Exactly.

Greg:

And, uh, so I’m, I’m, I interviewed tick price for the job at Southern and I, I was in my motor home at a camp, route 15 miles south of Houston. And after my interview with Tik price, uh, I said, well, you know what? I need to go get something to eat. And it’s a 15 mile drive to Houston. So I drove it to Houston downtown. It was a free concert or whatever. When the concert was over, I said, I’ve got to get me something to eat before I take that 15 mile drive back to the campground where there’s no place to eat. You know? So as I was walking, I stopped at the stoplight. Walking is about 6 30, 7 o’clock that afternoon. And some lady came from behind me and started soliciting me. And first thing I know police officers came out of nowhere, plain clothes police officer grabbed me in handcuffs and what we, the jail about three blocks. I was handcuffed walking down the street in Houston with three or four undercover cops on east side of me. And I’m walking down the street handcuffed, taking me to jail. And, uh, so I had to, once I was released three days later, uh, Southern university fired.

 

 

LD:

So it’s a use on lockdown for three days. You’re stuck, stuck.

Greg:

They wouldn’t let me out on about, they said I was a flight risk. I couldn’t believe it. I almost fell out. I had to see a judge with the video camera, you know, and, and he was in his office and I was standing there and he said, I’m going to deny your bail, your flight risk homo stated my knees buckled. I’m like, I live in Louisiana. Where can I go? And he said, well, look the university. Yeah, yeah. And he said, I was a flight risk. And then, uh, so they said, well look, let me see what I can do. He said, okay, Tuesday, I’ll assign it to, to be arraigned Tuesday in court or whatever on that Tuesday. So they not letting me out that Tuesday morning to go to court. And then, uh, you know, that process started. But when I had to defend myself lamin and that Josh Florida thing that came out just bought back a lot of memories or what happened to me because in the police report was totally different on what happened to Georgia, Florida.

Greg:

And thank God that young lady had that camera because the police report and the camera, what we saw in the video was not even close, but that was the same thing with me. That police officer report was nothing about nothing. Like what happened. Her store was totally different about what happened, but what saved me was she was wired and the conversation was on tape. So when we, when we went to court, all I had to do all my lawyers did was play the tape and I testified. And normally when you’re in court, uh, your lawyer don’t normally let his client testify. So they know we want you to go and testify and tell your side of the story. And all I did was going told my side of the story. The jury went in 34 minutes later, they came out, um, not guilty. So he had a jury, had a jury trial. It was a jury trial. Yes.

Greg:

And whenever reason a year later that went unchecked. Uh, notice nobody, no publicity, no like nobody I knew about it because you know, we all know each other, but very few people knew that you had been dedicated that you had it

Greg:

Didn’t have near the amount of publicity that I received when the incident happened. So a year later, when I’m vindicated, the mountain, Africa did a great job. They did a big story, but ESPN didn’t do anything. I even called ESPN. I’m like, Hey man, you guys need to say something about this because they blew me up when it happened. And they didn’t even mention, I was bending

 

 

LD:

Southern university had long let you go. Within the first months of university, first couple of weeks

Greg:

Ago, on my way back from Houston, they called me and told me I was fired. So you need to get back to work, make it back to campus. They called me as I was driving back to the bedroom and told me I was fired. No.

Greg:

So when we get into more of that,

Greg:

He put anyway, you can see what we have in common with bill. Again, I know we kind of went a direction here, but you can see,

Greg:

But that, that, you know, we all had a long, long run in some way with the law. I mean, it’s a long, long road, but it’s long run with the law. That’s how we got look at it. Yeah. But we all came out of it, unskilled and harming if able, if the city and talk about it. And, um, I’m excited that you’re able to sit here and share that book with me because the book was written by, uh, how you pronounce that name.

Greg:

John D D grew up Veles

Greg:

[inaudible]. So this is a great book. Uh, we know a lot of you, or might’ve wrote, written, read the book by an app. A lot of you have not. And, uh, and I’m sure that the canner family will love for you to a bad purchase. The book, read it. Their grandfather’s story is a great story. He’s a great man, a great human being. And we, I truly enjoyed it. I learned a lot and I really thank you. Great for sending me the book. There’s one other part I want to share about the book. It is, you see escape me right now that I’ve really enjoyed about the book, because it talks a lot about a lot of guys from Canada who end up all playing at LSU. They all are playing for one rap. Yeah. Well, the interesting thing, kitchen, they

Greg:

All played against each other in high school when he was at a streamer and Baton Rouge high was that biggest rivalry. And when he got to LSU, those stars from Baton Rouge high, uh, uh, [inaudible] uh, one route one route. I was the quarterback

Greg:

Cause kitchen. And they all played together at LSU and that would be such a great team. They, they always great high school star. They played against each other. They’re competitive also. So where at the end of the book, well, what about our coaches to the purpose? That purpose? I had no clue. Pete played with Billy. Yeah. He was the backup running back to the, again I had, no,

Greg:

I knew, I knew coach probably played running back, but I didn’t realize he was the backup to [inaudible] until I read the book

Greg:

Out of Mississippi. So I’ll be in coach purpose, coach LSU while we were there for three years. So we had a chance to get to know him. He was so he was a hard worker. He was a deep defensive back coach and he worked his guys hard. He got the both side. And you

Greg:

Know, when you had your interview with coach and then the bla, uh, cultural Oblon played off as a tackle. And I didn’t realize, I mean, I knew he played on that championship team cause he always rate. But when I heard your interview with coach of law, I didn’t realize he started the whole time. He was at LSU

LD:

That that would accept his senior year. He started senior year. He started Southwood junior year. Cause he couldn’t play as a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year competition. He said, but uh, he, I mean he gave up his store was so great. I coached, he was my coach. And uh, you know, he, he really took care of me. So I can’t complain about that. Coach deployed. He just told me don’t get hooked. That’s what we did. So once again, we take, uh, my dear friend, uh, catheter, Mr. Greg Lafluer, uh, showing up today to do this interview and on the great Billy Cannon title of book, a long, long run. And we’re going to close the bus in it because all three, as we all had a long, long run with the law. So when we take it, Greg, thanks for being here and sharing your book, share this book would be the cattle with us.

Greg:

Thank you brother LD. I really enjoyed this time together.

 

https://lsupress.org/books/detail/billy-cannon/