Billy Cannon's heart was as big as his legend

The reporter's notepad, almost 35 years old, is filled with voices.

Some are now friendly spirits who have since passed, some are still with us.

Until LSU football legend Dr. Billy Cannon died Sunday morning at age 80, the notepad on the Tigers' only Heisman Trophy winner was tucked away in one of my numerous storage boxes full of historical references.

There is at least 60 pages of notes taken from friends of Cannon in the days following his arrest on counterfeiting charges in July 1983 for which he served 21/2 years in federal prison.

Most of the scribbling divulged their puzzlement of why someone so revered as an athlete and so successful and respected as an orthodontist in his post-football…