Tag Archives: Houston Oilers

AFL

Cannon, Billy “Legend”

udlg97 cannonCard: Upper Deck Legends 1997
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event
Failure: TTM 2010, C/o Home

LSU’s sensational halfback and future Heisman Trophy winner, who led the Tigers to their first national championship, walked off the field of his final game for LSU to see a beaming madman in a prim suit standing in the end zone, named Bud Adams. With that Billy Cannon was signed with the AFL’s Houston Oilers in front of a televised national audience, effectively firing a warning shot towards the choppy waters the NFL was about to sail into. Before Cannon could get his legs under him in the upstart AFL, Pete Rozelle of the NFL and the Los Angeles Rams, (who drafted Cannon #1 overall in the NFL’s common draft,) sued him for breach of contract. You see Cannon had also signed a deal with the NFL in secret, but Adams, (who had arranged this whole scheme,) knew that if the NFL admitted that they had signed Cannon before his college eligibility had ended, would be essentially embarrassing themselves, based on the invalidity of their contract.

Billy Cannon gave the upstart league immediate viability and credibility as an alternative to the stodgy NFL. Along with quarterback George Blanda, and wide receivers Bill Groman, and Charlie Hennigan, Cannon led the Houston Oilers to the first two AFL championships in 1960, scoring on an 88 yard pass, in the team’s 24-16 victory over the LA Chargers. He’d then repeat again in 1961, scoring the only touchdown in the rematch between the two.  In that season he led the AFL in rushing with 948 yards (4.7 ypc), rushing for a team record 212 yards in one game, and overall with 2043 from scrimmage, but lost out to Blanda for the league MVP honors. In that season he set the league record for YFS in a game with 373 against the New York Titans, -a record that stood for almost 30 years, and had 5 TDs in that same game.  After the Oilers failed to win the championship game in 1963, Billy signed with the Oakland Raiders in 1964. It was there that Al Davis had the crazy idea of converting Cannon to a tight end. – And why not? With his soft hands, great speed, and size, Cannon was a perfect fit for the position and the downfield passing game that Davis employed. He played the next 5 seasons with the Raiders where he built an impressive resume at the position and won another title with the Raiders becoming one of the AFL’s greatest players at the position. Billy then played one final season with the Chiefs in 1970 and retired.  Cannon is one of only a handful (20) players who played the entire 10 year lifetime of the AFL in the league.

Billy has had some missteps since his career ended, and got in deep with the wrong people. In order to catch up he half-cooked up a counterfeiting scheme, and was sent to jail in 1983. After being released for good behavior, he went back to work in the medical field as a dentist, but had a difficult time finding work. Cannon was reviled now by the people who used to admire him who now would rather celebrate at seeing him fall further. It’d be in the most unlikeliest of places that Cannon, “The Legend” found his redemption. The prison system had need for a dentist, and Cannon came in and cleaned up the LSP dental department. In fact the Warden liked Billy’s work so much, that he promoted him to run the whole medical wing. It was in this perhaps, that Billy saw a glimmer of happiness in his work, and slowly over the next few years, took baby steps into the world again and began to make appearances at LSU functions. With time all wounds heal, and Billy was again praised for those svelte moves that earned him a place in school history for a play simply known as “The Punt Return”.  Cannon still works at the prison today and is referred to by the inmates simply as “Legend”.  He also enjoys raising and breeding horses.  Billy Cannon is the only player to have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame twice. He earned the recognition in 1983 but it was taken away due to his conviction, and then again was inducted in 2008. His number has also been retired by LSU.

G 133     Rush  602     Yds   2455     Avg   4.1    Td  17   Lg  64
Rec  236    Yds 3656   Avg  15.5     Td  47      Lg  88
Kr  67   Yds  1704      Avg  25.4    Td 1   Lg  88
Pr  14      Yds  178      Avg 12.7      Td 0   Lg  51

The punt return: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIHdlAg4Uic

NFL

Burrough, Ken “Kenny” (1948-2022)

Card: Topps 1977
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event

So give the New Orleans Saints credit for nabbing a small Texas product in the form of Kenny Burrough (6’4″, 210) from Texas Southern in the first round of the 1970 draft. He played for New Orleans for one season before the Oilers got the itch to trade for him. (Coach J.D. Roberts suspected that Ken was ‘goldbricking’  the Saints by making up a turf toe injury.)  Burrough was traded along with DT Dave Rowe to the Oilers, while the Saints received RB Hoyle Granger, a second round draft choice and two linemen. Former Saints coach Tom Fears said the team would, “Rue the day that they traded Burrough,” and he was right.

Burrough almost immediately filled a void at WR providing a deep threat for rookie quarterback Dan Pastorini, in the continued ‘Dead Ball Era’. Burrough was allowed to keep his signature ‘double zero’ jersey, and provided the team some excitement as they continued to plow through some truly bad growing pains, before the Bum Philips and Luv Ya Blu’ years of the Houston franchise. 

In 1975, Ken led the NFL in receiving yards with 1063 yards and 8 touchdowns. His deep threat skills were nearly unparalleled at the time, and in that season he averaged 20.1 yards per reception on a career high 53 receptions.  After losing the majority of the 1980 season to a knee injury, Ken came back for one final season for the Oilers in 1981 and then retired.  At the time of his retirement, Ken was the Oilers’ franchise all time leader in most receiving categories (since surpassed by Drew Hill and Ernest Givins), breaking many records held by Oilers’ great Charlie Hennigan.

G 156    Rec 421      Yds 7102     Avg 16.9      Td 49     Lg 85

UPDATE 2/24/22- Kenny Burrough passed away at his home in Jacksonville peacefully. He was 73 years old.

College Football HoF, Heisman Trophy Winner, NFL, Pro Football HoF, University of Texas

Campbell, Earl “Tyler Rose” (2)

utud11 campbellCard: UT Upper Deck 2011
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event
See Also: Earl Campbell, Earl Campbell (3)

I could not pass up the Fiterman Autograph Event in 2012, which included Heisman winners Earl Campbell and Billy Cannon and a lot of Oilers I had TTM woes with. The price was expensive, but cheap when prorated out in bulk, averaging out to under 20.00 an autograph. Earl Campbell’s alone typically goes for $100.00 per item, making it all a worthwhile deal.  While there was hiccups in shipping due to overwhelming demand, I did indeed receive all the cards back that I had wanted signed, including this gem. I skipped over Earl at the 610 event back in August, because I anticipated the long lines. He also was signing items shorthanded, with ‘E Campbell’  and no inscriptions. This set off a lot of collectors who screamed murder about the shortened sig. I really didn’t care, but to get this one back with the full signature and his number certainly made my day.

The Tyler Rose was the 43rd winner of the Heisman Trophy, and part of the 1991 NFL HoF class. He’s become a prominent businessman around Austin, slowly building a meat products enterprise under his name. He also has a restaurant in the ABIA airport as well.

Exerpt from Bum Phillips, NFL HoF presentation speech: Thank you. If ya’ll were looking into this sun, you’d know why I’m wearing a hat. I’d like to thank the Hall of Fame for giving me the opportunity to come back up to this part of North Texas. [This isn’t Texas.] Oh, it’s not? There’s a whole lot of people that deserve congratulations — the Hall of Fame, the enshrinees — but I want to send a special congratulations to the people of Canton, Ohio and the state of Ohio for that parade this morning. That was — That was outstanding. That’s the best think I’ve ever seen.

I’ve had some tough jobs in my life, but believe me, this is one of the toughest: Introduce a guy that made almost 10,00 yards, a guy that’s been in every newspaper and on every TV camera for the last 30 days, a guy that’s the best running back that I’ve ever seen in my life — and they tell me to do it in less than four minutes. Some of his runs lasted that long.

Earl and I’ve been — Earl and I’ve been friends a long time. He came down — one thing I appreciate about him is his loyalty — he came down — he’s a great hunter, great outdoorsman, great sportsman — and he wanted to go quail hunting. So, I told him, “Okay, I’ll take you over to Orange and let you go on my grandpa’s place.” We get over there and drive up to the ranch house. There’s a whole bunch of dogs in the yard, and course they knew me and didn’t know Earl. So I said, “You’re gonna have to sit in the car.” So I went inside and talked to my grandpa and he told me where everything was. And I got out and got back. Just as I was getting ready to go out of the house, he said, “Bum,” he said, “would you do me a favor?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “On your way in,” he said, “you saw that old white barn down there?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Well, that old gray mule standing out there is 29 years old.” And he said, “I’ve raised that thing since she was a baby.” And he said, “The vet told me to have to put her down, and she’s really in misery and I don’t have the heart to do it. Would you stop by there and put her out of her misery?” I said, “Yes, sir.” So I get back in the car and we go on down the road and Earl said, “What did he say?” I thought well I’ll just kind of mess with him a little bit. I said, oh so and so said we couldn’t hunt. Well, he swelled up. I mean he got mad and we’re going along there. We get about even with that mule. I said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m going to go shoot his mule.”

So I — I stop and I get out and I go over there and of course put the mule out of her misery and come back — no Earl Campbell. About that time I hear “Boom! Boom!” and I look and here come Earl running across the hill — said, “Bum, let’s get out of here; I got his horse and his dog.” And if that ain’t loyalty, I don’t know anything about loyalty.