WILL CHAPMAN, publisher

I read with interest reports on Billy Cannon’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

His induction was extra special, as he was actually voted into the Hall twice, the first time in 1983. That invite was rescinded when Cannon was arrested on counterfeiting charges.

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Since then, Cannon’s been doing things right and those charged with making the selections recently voted him in again.

Billy Cannon is no doubt LSU football’s biggest star of all time, winning a Heisman Trophy in 1959 after leading LSU to its first football National Championship in 1958.

He went on to the NFL. Interestingly, I read that Cannon signed a $50,000 contract with the then L.A. Rams in 1959 and even appeared at a press conference with Rams’ general manager Pete Rozelle.

But in 1960, he signed another contract, this one with the AFL’s Houston Oilers, that promised $100,000 over three years and interestingly, $10,000 for his wife and “a slightly used Cadillac.”

Hard to picture any big-time pro football prospect these days accepting a “slightly used Cadillac.”

When I was in grade school, I attended a football camp run by Oilers big-time receiver Charlie Hennigan and Oilers lineman Jerry Fowler.

We boys were all wide-eyed at being around these pro athletes, but our eyes got especially wide when Billy Cannon spent a few days working out at the camp. I think he was then playing with the Oakland Raiders, toward the end of his career.

You couldn’t be a boy and grow up in Louisiana in the 1960s and not know who Billy Cannon was, the biggest name in Louisiana football then, and still one of the biggest all these many years later.

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There’s less than a week until Christmas. Seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas goes by awfully fast, much faster as I’ve gotten older, certainly way faster than when I was a youngster.

I know wife Gladys and I still have some pre-holiday tasks still left on our lists and bet most everyone else does too.

I do want to get in another plug for our Help the Helpers effort to raise money for 10 local organizations that work with local people in need not just as Christmas, but also throughout the year.

We’ve seen a wonderful, most generous response already, collecting more than $14,500 with additional donations still arriving.

Be sure to check out the Honor Roll listing all of the donors to the effort thus far, running every day elsewhere in this paper. As that list has grown, so have the dollars we’ll be able to pass along to the organizations to help continue the work they are doing.

If you’ve not yet sent your check, please do so today. You can send it, payable to Help the Helpers, in care of The Daily Iberian, P.O. Box 9290, New Iberia, La. 70562.

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Since my last report on Help the Helpers, we received some extra generous donations, including $1,000 from the DeGroat family, $1,000 from Maxum Industries, and $500 from “Chico, Bandit & Annie.”

Every donation is important and makes a difference for our effort, but obviously the big ones move our balance up even faster.

Thanks to all who’ve contributed and supported our effort this year.

WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.