The Houston Oilers changed their name and changed into the Tennessee Oilers after which the Tennessee Titans, and the Titans haven’t forgotten their roots.
The Gist:
- The Houston Oilers changed into the Tennessee Oilers after relocating to Nashville in 1997.
- The Tennessee Oilers turned into the Tennessee Titans two years later to “reflect strength, management, and different heroic qualities.”
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You NFL fanatics available in the market may 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 football historians know, the Oilers switched cities and got a brand new nickname following a falling-out between the past due workforce owner Bud Adams and the city of Houston. Here’s how it all went down…
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The Houston Oilers modified names in 1997 after a move from Texas to Tennessee.
Back in the mid-Nineteen Nineties, Adams wanted a new downtown stadium to switch Houston’s Astrodome, which was dear to rent and sorely wanted renovations, as Chron.com studies. But the Astrodome’s landlord refused to give Adams a better deal, and the oil mogul fell out of favor with Houston’s political and business leaders, so he began in search of another host city.
Adams eventually found a new house for the Oilers in Nashville, Tenn., meanwhile, the place electorate had OK’d a referendum for the city to build a $292 million stadium. Then NFL owners voted in choose of the Oilers shifting to the Volunteer State, and thus the Houston Oilers turned into the Tennessee Oilers in 1997.
“This is an historic move for all of us,” stated Paul Tagliabue, then commissioner of the NFL, in keeping with Chron.com. “We’re the first primary sports activities franchise in Tennessee.”
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The Tennessee Oilers changed names once more in 1999, becoming the Tennessee Titans.
When the Oilers moved cities, Adams wanted to find a new nickname for the workforce, as did soccer fanatics who realized that oil is extra a Texas factor than a Tennessee factor, as CBS News reported in 1998. But former Oilers like Earl Campbell objected to a nickname change, so the group continued to play as the Tennessee Oilers for 2 extra seasons.
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Ahead of the 1999 season, regardless that, Adams put in combination an advisory council of Tennesseans that included a historian, a university president, and native businessmen, and the crew brainstormed new monikers for the workforce.
They considered calling the team the Pioneers, the Tornadoes, the Copperheads, the Vipers, and the Fury. But the profitable name, after all, became out to be the Titans.
“We wanted a brand new nickname to replicate strength, management, and other heroic qualities,” Adams said as he announced the change, according to CBS News. “Titans come from early Greek mythology, and the undeniable fact that Nashville is referred to as the ‘Athens of the South’ makes the Titans name very suitable.”
Houston’s subsequent NFL group, the Texans, began play in 2002.
After the Oilers’ departure, it didn’t take long for Houston to get every other NFL team. In 1999, the NFL homeowners gave the overdue businessman Bob McNair the inexperienced mild to start a new franchise in Houston, and that franchise was once formally named the Houston Texans the following year, consistent with the organization’s website. The Texans started enjoying in 2002 and turned into the first NFL crew to win an expansion debut in 41 years.
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