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The Houston Oilers modified their name and turned into 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 turned into the Tennessee Titans two years later to “reflect strength, management, and other heroic qualities.”

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You NFL fans in the market might have attempted 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 staff’s beginnings. So, why did the Oilers change their name anyway?

As football historians know, the Oilers switched towns and were given a new nickname following a falling-out between the late workforce proprietor Bud Adams and the city of Houston. Here’s the way it all went down…

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The Houston Oilers changed names in 1997 after a transfer from Texas to Tennessee.

Back in the mid-1990s, Adams sought after a brand new downtown stadium to exchange Houston’s Astrodome, which used to be dear to rent and sorely needed renovations, as Chron.com stories. But the Astrodome’s landlord refused to give Adams a greater deal, and the oil rich person fell out of style with Houston’s political and business leaders, so he started on the lookout for another host city.

Adams in the end found a new house for the Oilers in Nashville, Tenn., meanwhile, where citizens had OK’d a referendum for the city to build a $292 million stadium. Then NFL house owners voted in prefer of the Oilers transferring to the Volunteer State, and thus the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Oilers in 1997.

“This is an historical transfer for all of us,” stated Paul Tagliabue, then commissioner of the NFL, in keeping with Chron.com. “We’re the first major sports franchise in Tennessee.”

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The Tennessee Oilers changed names once more in 1999, turning into the Tennessee Titans.

When the Oilers moved cities, Adams sought after to find a new nickname for the group, as did football lovers who learned that oil is more 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 endured to play as the Tennessee Oilers for 2 more seasons.

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Ahead of the 1999 season, despite the fact that, Adams put in combination an advisory council of Tennesseans that incorporated a historian, a university president, and native businessmen, and the workforce brainstormed new monikers for the crew.

They regarded as calling the team the Pioneers, the Tornadoes, the Copperheads, the Vipers, and the Fury. But the successful name, of course, grew to become out to be the Titans.

“We wanted a new nickname to replicate strength, management, and other heroic qualities,” Adams mentioned as he announced the change, in step with CBS News. “Titans come from early Greek mythology, and the indisputable fact that Nashville is known as the ‘Athens of the South’ makes the Titans name very appropriate.”

Houston’s subsequent NFL crew, the Texans, started play in 2002.

After the Oilers’ departure, it didn’t take lengthy for Houston to get some other NFL group. In 1999, the NFL owners gave the late businessman Bob McNair the inexperienced mild to start out a brand new franchise in Houston, and that franchise was once officially named the Houston Texans the following yr, in keeping with the organization’s website. The Texans started playing in 2002 and became the first NFL team to win a ramification debut in 41 years.

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