Cannon Gaskin

9/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football

Sept. 12, 2006

Cannon Gaskin is fortunate he's a football player. The 6-4, 265-pound offensive lineman wouldn't be able to live up to his name if he was anything else. Gaskin possesses one of the most unique, if not the toughest-sounding, first names on the Demon Deacon football team.

"I'm lucky I didn't end up being a little tiny person," said Gaskin, whose nicknames include Cannonball and Can-Man. "I've played right tackle since I started playing football in middle school, so the name kind of fits me well."

A true freshman on the gridiron, Gaskin is actually a junior in real life; Richard Cannon Gaskin Jr. that is. While his father goes by Richard, the younger Gaskin goes by his middle name that is derived from his great grandparents' surname.

"It was my great grandparents' last name. They actually lived on a big farm in North Carolina. I went up there when I was a baby, but I never got to meet them," said Gaskin, a native of Jacksonville.