Former LSU Star Billy Cannon Hospitalized

Former LSU standout and Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon has been taken to a Baton Rouge hospital. Preliminary indications are he suffered a stroke.

Angola Penitentiary warden Burl Cain told a Baton Rouge newspaper the 75-year-old  was transported by ambulance early Tuesday afternoon.

Cannon played running back and tight end for the LSU Fighting Tigers football team for three seasons, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1959. Cannon is one of only 20 players who played in the AFL for all ten of its seasons.

He went on to become a successful orthodontist, but ran into financial trouble. He served 2-1/2 years in federal prison for counterfeiting.  He had trouble rebuilding his practice after being released, and accepted a position as a dentist at Angola Penitentiary. Cannon is now director of the prison's dental program.

Cannon was inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame in 2008.