The Oilers Became the Tennessee Titans

The Houston Oilers football team was founded in 1960. Their helmets donned an oil derrick, symbolizing Texas the oil state. On Decembemer 15th, 1996 the Houston Oilers played their final game in Houston, Texas against the Cincinnati Bengals losing to a score of 21-13.

In 1997 the Houston Oilers Football team relocated to Tennessee. They played in Memphis for one year and then moved to Nashville. The first two years that they played in Tennessee they were known as the Tennessee Oilers. Their first home game in Nashville ended in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals and how sweet that was for them.

The Tennessee Oilers owner K.S. Adams announced that the Tennessee Oilers would become the Tennessee Titans beginning in the 1999 season. He wanted a new nickname to reflect strength, leadership and other heroic qualities that he felt epitomized his team. In 1999, along with the opening of the new stadium, the team unveiled a new logo as the team was renamed the Tennessee Titans. They added the Tennessee logo to the back of their helmets. The new Tenessee Titans logo combined with the colors of their uniforms, showed the fans and NFL the power and the strength of the Tenessee Titans.

The owner Adams assured all fans both from Texas and Tennesse that the renamed team would retain the Houston Oilers' team records and that there would be a Hall of Fame honoring the greatest players from the Houston Oilers and the Tennessee Titans. This unlike what happened four years earlier, when Art Modell, owner of the then Cleveland Browns moved his team to Baltimore, Maryland. He was forced to leave the Cleveland Browns name behind in Cleveland, Ohio. Art Modell was forced to rename his team the Baltimore Ravens and start new as an expansion team. In contrast to Art Modell's deal the NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue raised no objection when Adams wanted to keep the rights to the Houston Oilers name. This meant that Houston could not use it to start an expansion team with the name the Oilers.