BATON ROUGE – A member of the 1958 national championship team, George O’Neal Jr., and a member of the 1961 SEC championship team, Gene Sykes, have recently passed away.
O’Neal, Jr., who was here on campus for the reunion of the 1958 championship team and the statue unveiling of the late Dr. Billy Cannon in late September, passed away from a lengthy illness on Oct. 28, while Sykes passed away at his home here in Baton Rouge on Oct. 26.
O’Neal, also in Baton Rouge, was a 6-1, 195-pound sophomore reserve center on the 1958 championship team.