U.S. vice presidential visits to Chattanooga have not been uncommon in the latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century, but they rarely come in the heat of an election campaign as one did when Tennessee was a purple state 50 years ago this week.
Fifty years ago this Wednesday, in the midst of President Richard Nixon's re-election battle, Vice President Spiro Agnew came to the city to campaign for the Republican ticket.
Although the Nixon-Agnew team would win 49 states that November, nothing was certain six weeks out, and Tennessee was at the time what would later be termed a purple state, meaning it couldn't be certain whether its voters would favor Democrats or Republicans. Indeed, from the election of 1964 through the election of 1996, the state voted for Republicans five times and Democrats four times.
Today, the state is solidly in the Republican column, its registered voters having cast more ballots for the GOP presidential candidate for the last six elections. Earlier, from 1876 through 1948, with the exception of only two elections (1920 and 1928), it voted for Democratic candidates.
In 1972, Agnew's visit was in the heat of battle.
Agnew appeared before 4,300 Republican faithful at Memorial Auditorium in what a headline in the Chattanooga News-Free Press compared to a "coach's pep talk."
"It sounded like a group of college football coaches trying to recruit a gym full of high school athletes," political writer Bob Poe wrote. "Almost every speaker talked about 'The Team' or teamwork."
Agnew, who would resign the vice presidency in disgrace 13 months later over receiving kickbacks when he was the Baltimore county executive and later the governor of Maryland, said Democratic presidential candidate Sen. George McGovern didn't "know which end is up" and excoriated him on his "doctrine of isolation" over the then-winding down Vietnam War.
Nixon, he said, would win "because he sticks to his principles ... the principles which we believe in ... and can be depended upon."
Agnew, who had become famous for his attack-dog oratorical flair and phrases like "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "pusillanimous pussyfooting," didn't waste that kind of talk on Chattanoogans.
He said "the campaign is just warming up" and that he'd "be in [campaign] shape" later but instead came to support the candidacies of U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., who was running for a second term, U.S. Rep. Lamar Baker, who was running for a second term, and other Republicans. Appearing with him in the cross-border rally -- rarely seen today -- were Georgia Republican U.S. Senate candidate Fletcher Thompson and Georgia U.S. House candidate Charlie Sherrill.
Before the rally, Agnew appeared at what the News-Free Press termed a private "fat cat" reception at the downtown Holiday Inn, where he was staying. Candidates who joined him said he "appeared a lot less formal" than they imagined and termed him a "tremendous American who mirrors the thoughts of many of his countrymen."
The vice president also took time during his visit for a brief meeting with his World War II platoon sergeant, John F. Bevilaqua. The two fought side by side as part of the 10th Armored Division during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany in December 1944 and January 1945.
Bevilaqua said the then-lieutenant "fit right in" during their service, "was just one of us" and was "solid under fire. He didn't flinch."
The vice presidential visit, like any involving a partisan candidate for one of the highest offices in the land, wasn't without its controversy, which today might be chalked up as part of cancel culture.
Both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Singing Mocs and the Red Bank High School band were invited to perform for the event, accepted their roles and then were not allowed to participate.
Singing Mocs director Glenn Draper told the paper the group "was anxious to sing for the vice president," but added he thought "some Democrats here put the word" to University of Tennessee President Dr. Ed Boling to have their presence removed.
Lynn Moore, director of Red Bank's band, said he understood the high school's inability to participate "had something to do with the [local musicians] union." Union members reportedly said if Republicans wanted music, they should employ members of the union, not high school children.
The Lee College Singers and the Rossville High School band performed in the place of the two canceled groups.
Since Agnew's visit and through the end of President Donald Trump's term, several sitting vice presidents -- including Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden and Mike Pence -- have visited Chattanooga during their tenures. Only Gore's 1996 brief airport visit, only days before the election, came during a re-election campaign.