SAN JOSE, Calif.
- At halftime on Saturday night, Earthquakes fans will have a chance to see a local soccer icon take his rightful place alongside club greats like Ramiro Corrales and Ronald Cerritos.
While much-deserved, Joe Cannon’s induction into the Earthquakes Hall of Fame will merely be a formality; the former goalkeeper has already penned his name into the club’s history books through countless heroic performances in goal across a decorated career that includes two Goalkeeper of the Year Awards, an MLS Best XI selection, and his most cherished prize of all, the Earthquakes’ first MLS Cup.
To this day, Cannon holds the Quakes all-time goalkeeping records for most games played (171), minutes played (15,561), saves (693) and shutouts (44), yet, Cannon’s stats on the field weren’t the only reason why fans quickly grew to love the charismatic goalkeeper; they also revered Cannon because he was one of their own.
Although born in Sun Valley, Idaho, Cannon grew up in Los Altos Hills during the Wild West years of soccer in the United States. He attended St. Francis High, played—and won a national championship—with the Mountain View Los Altos (MVLA) youth club and followed the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks, a local, pre-MLS team that featured early trailblazers like Eric Wynalda, Troy Dayak and Mark Dougherty. When the World Cup came to the U.S. in 1994, Cannon worked as a security guard at the games hosted at Stanford and the momentum generated from the world’s most popular event would set the foundation for Cannon’s eventual career path.
“MLS saw this area as a hotbed of soccer and it was awesome,” Cannon recounted. “As a kid still playing club ball and enjoying my time with that, it was special because you knew there was a bright future, but you just didn’t know what it was going to look like.”
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After graduating from high school, Cannon briefly attended UC Santa Barbara, but continued his collegiate career at Santa Clara University where he was a three-time All-West Coast Conference and two-time All-Far West Region selection before earning an All-America selection during his senior year. The Broncos goalkeeper finished his collegiate career with a 0.94 goals against average and 15 shutouts.
“I don’t talk about those years enough,” Cannon noted. “I was a kid that didn’t really like school, but I think [St. Francis High and Santa Clara University] were very instrumental in helping mold me.”
Cannon was still at Santa Clara when MLS began play in 1996 and it provided him with a tangible goal to reach.
“You’re a college kid and you have these dreams of playing pro soccer,” Cannon said. “At that time, it was all Europe-based. I was at Santa Clara ’95 through ’98 and once the league came in April of ’96, I think that was the pre-cursor to everything. It gave your dreams a vision and made it more realistic that you had a goal and that there was a path. For me it wasn’t so straightforward, but at the same time, it was important to see what it looked like.”
After college, Cannon was not drafted into MLS and instead joined the A-League’s San Diego Flash in 1998. He finished the season as the club’s Most Valuable Player after leading the Flash to a semi-final run in the playoffs. Cannon’s 12 clean sheets and 0.80 goals against average caught the eyes of the Earthquakes—then the San Jose Clash—and Cannon was signed to the team for the 1999 season as the backup to David Kramer.
"That was probably one of the happiest days of my life," Cannon recounted.
Just a few months after Cannon arrived on the team, David Kramer suffered a shoulder injury, leaving a vacancy under the Clash’s net. Cannon assumed the starting role and never looked back, finishing his first season with San Jose with 4 shutouts and a goals against average of 1.33 in 24 appearances. He would go on to defend the Quakes’ goal longer than any other goalkeeper in club history.
In an age before the Homegrown Player Rule existed, Cannon was one of the first true local talents to break through for the Earthquakes. However, he is quick to point out that he owes much of his success to several key figures in his life, especially his childhood coach.
“I was lucky because I had a role model [at MVLA] named Alberto Montoya who was my coach for 10 years,” said Cannon. “Alberto was one of the first coaches to tell me I had a future if I worked hard at something. It’s something I try to instill in all players that I work with.”
Despite playing multiple sports growing up, Cannon cites Montoya’s mentorship and passion for the sport as key reasons for why he chose to pursue soccer.
“As a young kid, I played all sports,” explained Cannon. “I played baseball, I played basketball, I played football, but I think it’s not just the sport that really draws you in. It’s the people that impact your life and that’s a lesson I don’t forget.”
Quakes fans would soon be grateful for Montoya’s influence when, in just his third season with the team, Cannon helped bring his hometown club the ultimate glory in historic fashion.
Before he could do that, however, Cannon would first have to weather the worst season in Earthquakes history…
