Hall of Fame
Position: Guard
Years: 1927-1929
Place of Birth: Columbus, OH
Date of Birth: Apr 19, 1907
Place of Death: Columbus, OH
Date of Death: Nov 12, 1967
Jersey Number: 19
Height: 5-11
Weight: 193
High School: Columbus, OH (Aquinas HS)
One of the last of the bareheaded players, Jack Cannon disdained the use of a helmet and became the crowd-pleasing roving guard on Notre Dame's 1929 national championship team. As might be expected, there was a certain renegade personality in Cannon. He played hard when he felt like it, letting down whenever the Irish were well ahead and a game became uninteresting for him. Coach Knute Rockne constantly chided Cannon until his performances returned to their usual aggressive levels. During that perfect nine-game championship season of 1929, Notre Dame played every game on the road, making the unbeaten and untied record all the more impressive. Notre Dame Stadium was still under construction then, and the Irish were forced to travel to meet the competition. Cannon loved it. He was as much a wanderer off the field as he was a ball-hawking defensive star. Harry Stuhldreher, the quarterback in the famed Four Horsemen backfield of 1924, was to write about Cannon later, "He was the apple of everybody's eye. Without a doubt, he was the best lineman Notre Dame ever turned out. He had the faculty of being able to diagnose opponents' plays and seemed to be at the point where the play developed every time."
