| Houston Oilers | |||||||||||||
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| General information | |||||||||||||
| Established | 1960 | ||||||||||||
| Ended | 1996 | ||||||||||||
| Colors | |||||||||||||
| Fight song | Luv Ya Blue/Houston Oilers #1 | ||||||||||||
| Mascot | The Roughneck | ||||||||||||
| Personnel | |||||||||||||
| Owner | Bud Adams | ||||||||||||
| General manager | Don Suman (1960–1961) Pop Ivy (1962–1963) Carroll Martin (1964–1965) Don Klosterman (1966–1969) Bob Brodhead (1970) John W. Breen (1971–1972) Sid Gillman (1973–1974) Bum Phillips (1975–1980) Ladd Herzeg (1981–1989) Mike Holovak (1990–1993) Floyd Reese (1994–1996) | ||||||||||||
| Head coach | Lou Rymkus (1960–1961) Wally Lemm (1961) Pop Ivy (1962–1963) Sammy Baugh (1964) Hugh Taylor (1965) Wally Lemm (1966–1970) Ed Hughes (1971) Bill Peterson (1972–1973) Sid Gillman (1973–1974) Bum Phillips (1975–1980) Ed Biles (1981–1983) Chuck Studley (1983) Hugh Campbell (1984–1985) Jerry Glanville (1985–1989) Jack Pardee (1990–1994) Jeff Fisher (1994–1996) | ||||||||||||
| Team history | |||||||||||||
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| Home fields | |||||||||||||
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| League / conference affiliations | |||||||||||||
American Football League (AFL) (1960–1969)
National Football League (1970–1996)
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| Championships | |||||||||||||
League championships: 2
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| Conference championships: 0 | |||||||||||||
| Division championships: 6 | |||||||||||||
| Playoff appearances (15) | |||||||||||||
| AFL:1960,1961,1962,1967,1969 NFL:1978,1979,1980,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993 | |||||||||||||
| This article is part of series of |
| Tennessee Titans history |
|---|
| Houston Oilers (1960–1996) |
| Tennessee Oilers (1997–1998) |
| Tennessee Titans (1999–present) |
| List of seasons |
TheHouston Oilers were a professionalAmerican football team that played inHouston from its founding in1960 to1996. They began play as a charter member of theAmerican Football League (AFL) and won two AFL championships before joining the NFL in theAFL–NFL merger of the late 1960s.
The Oilers competed in the AFL'sEast division—along with theBuffalo Bills,New York Jets, andBoston Patriots—until the merger, when they joined the newly formedAFC Central. The team played home games atJeppesen Stadium andRice Stadium during its first eight seasons, and thereafter at theAstrodome.
The Oilers were the first champions of the AFL, winning the1960 and1961 championships, but never won another. They appeared in the1962 AFL Championship, losing in double overtime to their in-state rivals, theDallas Texans (now theKansas City Chiefs); the Oilers also won the AFL East division title in1967 and qualified for the1969 AFL playoffs, both times losing to theOakland Raiders (which are now theLas Vegas Raiders). From1978 to1980, the Oilers, led byBum Phillips and in the midst of theLuv Ya Blue campaign, appeared in and lost the 1978 and1979AFC Championship Games. They were a consistent playoff team from1987 to1993, an era that included both of the team's only division titles (1991 and 1993), as well as the dubious distinction of being on the losing end ofthe second largest comeback in NFL history. For the rest of the Oilers' time in Houston, they compiled losing seasons in almost every other year.
The Oilers' main colors wereColumbia blue and white, with scarlet trim, while their logo was a simplederrick. Oilers' jerseys were always Columbia blue for home and white for away. The helmet color was Columbia blue with a white derrick from 1960 through1965, silver with a Columbia blue derrick from1966 through1971, and Columbia blue with a white-and-scarlet derrick from1972 through1974, before changing to a white helmet with a Columbia blue derrick beginning in1975 and lasting the remainder of the team's time in Houston.
The Oilers were owned byBud Adams, who began threatening to move the team in the late 1980s, and finally did so after the 1996 season. He moved the team toTennessee, where they played as the Tennessee Oilers inMemphis for the1997 season, then inNashville for the1998 season. In 1999, to coincide with the opening of theirnew stadium, Adams changed the team's name to theTennessee Titans and the color scheme from Columbia blue, scarlet, and white to Titans blue, navy, white, and silver with scarlet accents. The franchise retained the Houston Oilers' team history and records, while the team's name was retired by then-NFL CommissionerPaul Tagliabue, thus preventing a future HoustonNational Football League (NFL) team from using the Oilers' name.[1]
Later Houston-based football teams have paid homage to the Oilers. TheHouston Roughnecks, anXFL team founded in 2020, shares their name with the Oilers' old mascot and used a logo that resembled the Oilers' until they changed it under pressure from the NFL.[2] TheUniversity of Houston football team wore Oilers-style throwback uniforms during the Cougars'2023 season opener againstUTSA.[3]
The Houston Oilers began in1960 as a charter member of theAmerican Football League. They were owned byBud Adams, a Houston oilman who had made several previous unsuccessful bids for an NFL expansion team in Houston. Adams was an influential member of the eight original AFL owners, since he,Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs founderLamar Hunt andBuffalo Bills founderRalph Wilson were more financially stable than the other five. (All three would go on to own their franchises for over forty years, whereas the others pulled out by the 1980s.)
The Oilers appeared in the first three AFL championships. They scored an important victory over the NFL when they signed LSU'sHeisman Trophy winner, All-America running backBilly Cannon. Cannon joined other Oiler offensive stars such as quarterbackGeorge Blanda, flankerCharlie Hennigan, running backCharlie Tolar, and guardBob Talamini. After winning the first-ever AFL championship over theLos Angeles Chargers in1960, they repeated over the same team (then in San Diego) in1961. (In 2012, the retail outletOld Navy earned infamy for selling a shirt that misidentified the 1961 AFL champions as theHouston Texans, which did not exist until 2002.)[4] The Oilers lost to theDallas Texans in the classic1962 double-overtime AFL championship game, at the time the longestprofessional football championship game ever played. In1962, the Oilers were the first AFL team to sign an active NFL player away from the other league, when wide receiverWillard Dewveall left the Bears to join the champion Oilers. Dewveall that year caught the longest pass reception for a touchdown in professional American football history, 99 yards, fromJacky Lee, against theSan Diego Chargers.
TheOilers won the AFL Eastern Division title again in1967, then became the first professional football team to play in a domed stadium, when they moved into Houston'sAstrodome, then home ofMLB'sHouston Astros for the1968 season. Previously, the Oilers had played atJeppesen Stadium at theUniversity of Houston (later called Robertson Stadium) from 1960 to 1964, andRice University's stadium from 1965 to 1967. Adams had intended the team play at Rice from the first, but Rice's board of regents initially rejected the move. After the Astrodome opened for business, Adams attempted to move there, but could not negotiate an acceptable lease with the Houston Sports Association (owners of the Houston Astros) from whom he would sublease the Dome. The1969 season, the last as an AFL team, sawHouston begin 3–1, but tumble afterwards. They qualified for theplayoffs, but were defeated by theRaiders 56–7, to finish the year with a record of 6–7–2.
The years immediately after theAFL-NFL Merger were not as kind to the Oilers, who sank to the bottom of theAFC Central division. After going 3–10–1 in1970, they went 4–9–1 in1971, and then suffered back-to-back 1–13 seasons in1972–73. But by1974, theOilers led by Hall of Fame coachSid Gillman brought the team back to respectability by reaching .500 at season's end.
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Thenext year,Bum Phillips arrived and with talented stars likeElvin Bethea andBilly "White Shoes" Johnson, theOilers had their first winning season of the decade going 10–4 but did not make the playoffs. Injuries and inadequate offense doomed them to a 5–9 season in1976, but theteam improved to 8–6 the following year, and in1978, theOilers' fortunes improved when theydraftedUniversity of Texas football starEarl Campbell, known as the "Tyler Rose", who was Rookie of the Year that year and led the Oilers to their first playoff appearance since the merger.
DefeatingMiami in the wild-card round, they then trumpedNew England, leading to immediately rebuilding of the Patriots. But in the AFC Championship, theSteelers routed them 34–5. In spite of the lopsided defeat, the Oilers returned home to a packed Astrodome for a pep-rally uncommon in professional sports.[5]
The1979 season was a near rerun of 1978 as theOilers finished 11–5 with Campbell gaining 1,600 yards in the regular season, and again earned a wild card spot. Beating theBroncos in the first home playoff game in Houston in over a decade, the Oilers' performance suffered with injuries to Campbell,quarterbackDan Pastorini and top receiverKen Burrough. They did manage to edge past the high-flyingSan Diego ofDan Fouts in the divisional round, partly thanks to the play ofVernon Perry (4 INTs and a blocked FG) as well as the outstanding line coached byJoe Bugel. The Oilers returned to the AFC Championship game for the second year in a row, only to get knocked down by the Pittsburgh Steelers again, in spite of a terrific effort by Dan Pastorini—the Steelers had shut the ailing Campbell down, yet Pastorini nearly succeeded with the modest receiving corps of Mike Renfro, Rich Caster, and Ronnie Coleman venturing into the Steelers excellent defense. A controversial out-of-bounds call nullified a touchdown by wide receiverMike Renfro resulting in a 27–13 victory for Pittsburgh. Once again, after a tough loss, the Oilers returned to their then-adoring fans who packed the Astrodome for an impromptu pep-rally for the second year in a row.
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Before the1980 season, Pastorini was traded to theOakland Raiders in exchange for Hall of Fame quarterbackKen Stabler. TheOilers went 11–5 in the 1980 season and achieved a wild card spot for the third year in a row, but they were quickly vanquished byOakland, 27–7. Bud Adams firedBum Phillips, who was succeeded byEd Biles. Afterwards began a long playoff drought as the Oilers fell to 7–9 in1981, and 1–8 in thestrike-shortened1982 season. In1983,Houston went 2–14. Biles resigned in Week 6 and was succeeded byChuck Studley, who served merely as an interim coach untilHugh Campbell was hired in the off-season. In1984, theOilers won a bidding war for free-agent formerCFL quarterbackWarren Moon (who played for Campbell with theEdmonton Eskimos), but didn't return to the playoffs that year either, with two wins and fourteen losses. The aging Earl Campbell was traded toNew Orleans during the off-season and was replaced byMike Rozier, a refugee from theUSFL. In week 14 of the1985 season, Campbell was replaced byJerry Glanville, who saw the team through the last two games to finish 5–11. A 31–3 rout ofGreen Bay in the1986 season opener looked promising, but in the endHouston only managed another 5–11 record. Anotherstrike in1987 reduced the season to 15 games, three by substitute players. After ending 9–6, the team achieved its first winning record and playoff berth in seven years. After beating theSeahawks in overtime, they fell toDenver in the divisional round. Going 10–6 in1988, theOilers again got into theplayoffs as a wild card, beatCleveland in a snowy 24–23 match, and then lost toBuffalo a week later.1989 saw a 9–7 regular season, but the team gained a wild card berth. In a messy, penalty-ridden game, they were beaten byPittsburgh.
The Oilers' resurgence came in the midst of a battle for the franchise's survival. In 1987, Adams threatened to move the team toJacksonville, Florida (later the home ofJacksonville Jaguars), unless the Astrodome was "brought up to date". At the time the Astrodome seated about 50,000 fans, the smallest capacity in the NFL. Not willing to lose the Oilers,Harris County responded with $67 million in improvements to the Astrodome that included new AstroTurf, 10,000 additional seats and 65 luxury boxes. These improvements were funded by increases in property taxes and the doubling of the hotel tax, as well as bonds to be paid over 30 years. However, Adams' increasing demands for greater and more expensive accommodations to be funded at taxpayer expense[6] eventually led to the team's departure from Houston.[7][8][9]
The Oilers briefly rose to become a league power once again in the first half of the 1990s. In1991, the Oilers won their first division title in 25 years, and their first as an NFL team. However, only two minutes away from their first conference title game in 13 years, they were the victims of an 80-yard march byJohn Elway and theDenver Broncos beforeDavid Treadwell kicked a 28-yard field goal to win the game 26–24. In1992, the Oilers compiled a 10–6 regular season record, but made history against theBuffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card playoffs by blowing an NFL record 35–3 lead and eventually losing 41–38 in overtime, a game now known simply as "The Comeback". Bud Adams made it clear he was not happy about the consistent playoff failure, and all but threatened that this would the team's final chance under their current core, and were they to fail he would begin to rebuild, no player safe.
In the1993 season, the Oilers finished with a 12–4 record, their best record ever in Texas, and another AFC Central title. However, the 1993 season is best remembered for its internal conflict; "Team Turmoil" began 1–4 start but then won their final 11 games. Offensive coordinatorKevin Gilbride and defensive coordinatorBuddy Ryan brawled during the final game of the regular season (nationally broadcast onESPN) against the New York Jets. They lost the Chiefs in the Divisonal round 28-20 in what would prove to be the final playoff game for the Houston Oilers. After the season, Adams began to rebuild the team by releasing or trading most of their stars and free agents, notably Moon to theMinnesota Vikings. This gutting would have likely have happened anyway, as the team was projected to be over thesalary cap for 1994 in the first year the cap would be in effect.[10]
The Oilers finished the next season 2–14, the third-worst record for a full season in franchise history and the steepest season-to-season decline in NFL history (a record later tied by the 2013 Houston Texans). The Oilers would never make the playoffs again in Texas. However, they did draftSteve McNair in1995.
At the same time, Adams again lobbied the city for a new stadium, one with club seating and other revenue generators present in recently built NFL stadiums, and he committed to pay for 25% of the cost of a new stadium. His idea called for a downtown domed stadium that could also be reconfigured to accommodate theNBA'sHouston Rockets–similar toSan Antonio'sAlamodome.[11]MayorBob Lanier initially supported Adams' bid for a new stadium privately, but refused to publicly support the project. Although Houstonians wanted to keep the Oilers, they were wary of investing more money on a stadium so soon after the Astrodome improvements.[citation needed] The city was also still struggling to recover from theoil collapse of the 1980s. Adams, sensing that he was not going to get the stadium he wanted, began shopping the Oilers to other cities. He was particularly intrigued by Nashville, and opened secret talks with mayorPhil Bredesen. On November 16,1995, Adams announced that the Oilers would be moving to Nashville for the1998 season.[12] City officials there promised to contribute $144 million toward a new stadium, as well as $70 million in ticket sales.
After the move was announced, support for the Oilers in the Houston area dried up almost overnight. As a result, the1996 season was an unmitigated disaster. Only three games attracted crowds of more than 30,000 people. Games were so quiet that it was possible to hear conversations on the field from the grandstand.[13] Meanwhile, the team's radio network, which once stretched across the state of Texas, was reduced to flagshipKTRH in Houston and a few affiliates in Tennessee. By October 1996, KTRH was cutting from ongoing games to broadcast Houston Rockets preseason games.[14] The Oilers got off to a 5–2 start, but a stretch of four losses in five games took them out of playoff contention. The team went 8–8, finishing 6–2 in road games and only 2–6 in home games. The team's final game in Houston, against the Bengals on December 15, attracted just over 15,000 people—by at least one estimate, the smallest crowd in franchise history. Adams, the city and the league were unwilling to see this continue for another season, so a deal was reached on May 8, 1997 to let the Oilers out of their lease a year early and move to Tennessee.[11][15] The Oilers lost their final game in Houston 21–13.
In 1999,Robert McNair was awarded, at a cost of $1 billion, an expansion team to replace the Oilers in Houston.[16] The franchise became theHouston Texans, which adopted a similar red-white-and-blue scheme, albeit in darker shades, and inherited the sports complex the Oilers had played in, but not the Oilers' former home; what is now calledNRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) would be built next door to the Astrodome in 2002.Brad Hopkins was the last player on the Titans who played for the Oilers when he retired in 2005.Jon Runyan was the last active NFL player to have played for the Oilers when he retired in 2009.[17]
| Houston Oilers retired numbers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Player | Position | Years played | Retired |
| 1 | Warren Moon | QB | 1984–1993 | October 1, 2006 |
| 9 | Steve McNair | QB | 1995–1996 | September 15, 2019 |
| 27 | Eddie George | RB | 1996 | September 15, 2019 |
| 34 | Earl Campbell | RB | 1978–1984 | August 13, 1987 |
| 43 | Jim Norton | S/P | 1960–1968 | |
| 63 | Mike Munchak | OG | 1982–1993 | November 6, 1994 |
| 65 | Elvin Bethea | DE | 1968–1983 | August 4, 1983 |
| 74 | Bruce Matthews | OT | 1983–1996 | December 8, 2002 |
| Houston Oilers Hall of Famers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | ||||
| No. | Inductee | Class | Position | Seasons |
| 65 | Elvin Bethea | 2003 | DE | 1968–83 |
| 16 | George Blanda | 1981 | QB/K | 1960–66 |
| 52 | Robert Brazile | 2018 | LB | 1975-84 |
| 34 | Earl Campbell | 1991 | RB | 1978–84 |
| 87 | Dave Casper | 2002 | TE | 1980–83 |
| 78 | Curley Culp | 2013 | DT | 1974–80 |
| 29 | Ken Houston | 1986 | S | 1967–72 |
| 35 | John Henry Johnson | 1987 | FB | 1966 |
| 18/40 | Charlie Joiner | 1996 | WR | 1969–72 |
| 74 | Matthews, BruceBruce Matthews | 2007 | OT | 1983–96 |
| 1 | Warren Moon | 2006 | QB | 1984–93 |
| 63 | Mike Munchak | 2001 | OG | 1982–93 |
| 12 | Ken Stabler | 2016 | QB | 1980–81 |
| Coaches and Executives | ||||
| Inductee | Class | Position | Seasons | |
| Sammy Baugh | 1963 | Coach | 1964 | |
| Sid Gillman | 1983 | Coach | 1973–74 | |
Bud Adams established the Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame after the 40th season of the franchise to honor past players and management.[18]
| Elected to thePro Football Hall of Fame |
| Houston Oilers Hall of Fame | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Name | Position | Years | Inducted |
| 65 | Elvin Bethea | DE | 1968–83 | December 9, 1999 |
| 16 | George Blanda | QB/K | 1960–66 | |
| 34 | Earl Campbell | RB | 1978–84 | |
| — | Mike Holovak | GM | 1989–93 | |
| 29 | Ken Houston | S | 1967–72 | |
| 63 | Mike Munchak | G | 1982–93 | |
| 43 | Jim Norton | P | 1960–68 | |
| 74 | Bruce Matthews | OL | 1983–96 | December 8, 2002 |
| 1 | Warren Moon | QB | 1984–93 | October 1, 2007 |
| — | Bud Adams | Owner/founder | 1959–96 | September 7, 2008 |
| 27 | Eddie George | RB | 1996 | October 27, 2008 |
| 9 | Steve McNair | QB | 1995–96 | |
| 41/89 | Frank Wycheck | TE | 1995–96 | |
| 52 | Robert Brazile | LB | 1975–84 | October 14, 2018 |
| — | Bum Phillips | Coach | 1975-80 | September 26, 2021 |
| — | Jeff Fisher | Coach | 1994-96 | November 21, 2021 |
| — | Floyd Reese | Coach/GM | 1986-96 | |
| 84 | Billy "White Shoes" Johnson | WR | 1974–80 | December 17, 2023 |
