William Abb Cannon (born August 2, 1937) is a former American football running back and tight end who played professionally in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He attended Louisiana State University (LSU), where he played college football as a halfback and return specialist for the LSU Tigers. At LSU, Cannon was twice unanimously named an All-American, helped the 1958 LSU team win a national championship, and received the Heisman Trophy as the nation's most outstanding college player in 1959. His punt return against Ole Miss on Halloween night in 1959 is considered by fans and sportswriters to be one of the most famous plays in LSU sports history.

Cannon married his high school sweetheart, Dot Dupuy, while they were both freshmen at LSU. They have five children together. His son Billy Cannon Jr. played as a linebacker for Texas A&M and was selected in the first round of the 1984 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. Cannon Sr. graduated from LSU in 1959 and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Tennessee during the Oilers' off-season. There, he earned a D.D.S.; later, he earned additional degrees in orthodontia from Loyola University Chicago. After retiring from football, he returned to Baton Rouge and started his own dental practice. Despite a successful practice, by 1983 he was in financial difficulties from bad real estate investments and gambling debts. Becoming involved in a counterfeiting scheme, he printed $6 million in U.S. 100-dollar bills, some of which he stored in ice chests buried in the back yard of a house he owned and rented out. Charged along with five others, he served two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana. Upon his release in 1986, he regained his dentistry license but struggled to rebuild his practice. In 1995, he was hired as a dentist at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, initially as a contractor. At the time, the dental clinic in the prison was in chaos; many dentists refused to work there and inmates were often unable to make appointments. Cannon reorganized the dental program with great success and was soon hired as a full-time employee. Warden Burl Cain, impressed with Cannon's work with the dental program, put him in charge of the prison's entire medical system. Cannon remains the resident dentist at the penitentiary, where inmates typically call him "Legend". Cannon resides in St. Francisville, Louisiana with his wife. In February 2013, Cannon suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in Baton Rouge. He was released two days later, returned to work the following Monday, and made a full recovery.

Did Cannon have any children?
They have five children together.