The Houston Oilers changed their name and became the Tennessee Oilers after which the Tennessee Titans, and the Titans haven’t forgotten their roots.
The Gist:
- The Houston Oilers become the Tennessee Oilers after relocating to Nashville in 1997.
- The Tennessee Oilers changed into the Tennessee Titans two years later to “mirror energy, management, and other heroic qualities.”
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You NFL fans out there might have tried adjusting your tv units on Oct. 29, 2023, as the Tennessee Titans wore uniforms in the colours of their predecessors, the Houston Oilers, in a nod to the crew’s beginnings. So, why did the Oilers change their name anyway?
As soccer historians know, the Oilers switched towns and were given a new nickname following a falling-out between the late team owner Bud Adams and the town of Houston. Here’s the way it all went down…
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The Houston Oilers changed names in 1997 after a move from Texas to Tennessee.
Back in the mid-1990s, Adams wanted a new downtown stadium to replace Houston’s Astrodome, which was expensive to rent and sorely wanted renovations, as Chron.com experiences. But the Astrodome’s landlord refused to present Adams a greater deal, and the oil wealthy person fell out of fashion with Houston’s political and business leaders, so he began looking for any other host city.
Adams in the end discovered a new house for the Oilers in Nashville, Tenn., meanwhile, where voters had OK’d a referendum for the town to construct a $292 million stadium. Then NFL homeowners voted in prefer of the Oilers moving to the Volunteer State, and thus the Houston Oilers was the Tennessee Oilers in 1997.
“This is an historic transfer for all of us,” mentioned Paul Tagliabue, then commissioner of the NFL, in keeping with Chron.com. “We’re the first major sports activities franchise in Tennessee.”
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The Tennessee Oilers modified names again in 1999, becoming the Tennessee Titans.
When the Oilers moved cities, Adams wanted to find a new nickname for the group, as did soccer enthusiasts who realized that oil is extra a Texas thing than a Tennessee thing, as CBS News reported in 1998. But former Oilers like Earl Campbell objected to a nickname change, so the group persisted to play as the Tennessee Oilers for two extra seasons.
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Ahead of the 1999 season, though, Adams put together an advisory council of Tennesseans that incorporated a historian, a school president, and native businessmen, and the team brainstormed new monikers for the group.
They thought to be calling the staff the Pioneers, the Tornadoes, the Copperheads, the Vipers, and the Fury. But the successful name, in fact, became out to be the Titans.
“We sought after a brand new nickname to replicate strength, management, and different heroic qualities,” Adams said as he announced the change, in keeping with CBS News. “Titans come from early Greek mythology, and the undeniable fact that Nashville is known as the ‘Athens of the South’ makes the Titans name very suitable.”
Houston’s subsequent NFL team, the Texans, began play in 2002.
After the Oilers’ departure, it didn’t take long for Houston to get every other NFL workforce. In 1999, the NFL owners gave the overdue businessman Bob McNair the inexperienced mild to start a new franchise in Houston, and that franchise used to be officially named the Houston Texans the following year, in step with the organization’s website. The Texans began taking part in in 2002 and was the first NFL staff to win a selection debut in Forty one years.
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