“Limping Jesus” was a nickname applied by some students to Reverend Thomas Humes, who became president of the university in 1865. Humes was the longtime Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Knoxville and had been a staunch Unionist during the Civil War. It was reported that while he was delivering a prayer at St. John’s, a secessionist shot him. As a result of the wound, he was lame enough to need a cane.