Opinion | Billy Graham, cartoonist Charlie Daniel connected as Tar Heels in Neyland Stadium tunnel

When Billy Graham brought his crusade to Knoxville in May 1970, the event was front-page news for days.

On May 22, an opening-night crowd of some 45,000 poured into Neyland Stadium, and 1,000-plus made their way down the aisles to declare their faith. The throng swelled to 55,000 the following day, and on May 24, some 62,000 heard Graham preach and Johnny Cash perform at the football stadium.

The climax came on May 28, when President Richard Nixon joined the Asheville evangelist. Some 75,000 packed the stadium, and 20,000 to 25,000 crowded outside.

It was the president’s first appearance on a college campus since four students had been killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio just a few weeks earlier, and protesters carried signs reading “Thou Shalt Not Kill” and chanted “One, two, three, four; we don't want Nixon's war.”

Read More: Billy Graham's most notable quotes 

Read More: 16 lesser-known facts about Billy Graham

But mostly the president was greeted warmly. His 13-minute speech drew 14 ovations from the crowd.

"There's no doubt about it, young people are in a revolt today,” Graham told the News Sentinel, “but it's against the established church and not against Christ. ... Youth today is looking for hope, and God offers this hope.”

The event drew plenty of attention on the editorial pages of local papers, too, including a cartoon about Graham by Charlie Daniel, who was then working for the Knoxville Journal. He didn’t join the News Sentinel until the Journal closed in 1992.

Read More: Billy Graham reached millions through his crusades. Here's how he did it

The cartoon caught the eye of Graham’s staff, and arrangements were made to have Daniel present the framed original to the minister.

“We met in the tunnel at Neyland Stadium as he was coming out to the platform,” Daniel recalled. “The meeting was very brief. I told him I was a fellow North Carolinian. He looked at the cartoon and said, ‘That’s very good.’ ”

“I was in awe of him,” Daniel said. He couldn’t recall exactly what the cartoon portrayed, but he remembers feeling that the 6-foot-2 Graham “towered over me in more ways than one.”

Graham handed the cartoon to one of his aides and proceeded out to the field. Daniel, a lifelong Baptist, stayed for the event.

“In my mind, he took that cartoon and hung it in his den,” Daniel said after hearing of Graham’s death Wednesday. “I’ll stick with that image.”

Daniel had another connection with the Graham family. He attended the University of North Carolina with Danny Lotz, who married Graham’s second daughter, Anne. 

Working on The Daily Tar Heel student newspaper, the budding cartoonist had only a passing acquaintance with Lotz, who, at 6-foot-7, also towered over him.

A member of the 1956-57 UNC basketball team that went undefeated and won the national championship, Lotz eventually became a dentist. He died in 2015.

Anne Graham Lotz is still going strong, carrying on her father’s ministry.

Jack McElroy is executive editor of the News Sentinel. He can be reached at editor@knoxnews.com.

Earlier column:What if MLK Day were observed on April 4, the date of his death, instead of now?

Earlier column:Jim Haslam approaches 70 years of affecting Knoxville, legacy intact