How They Got Their Name: Tennessee Titans

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When the American Football League was founded in 1960, the Houston Oilers were an inaugural member under owner Bud Adams.  Houston enjoyed many years of success, including the 1960 and 1961 AFL Championships.  But after 36 years and failed efforts to secure a brand new, football-only stadium, Adams packed up the team’s bags and headed for Nashville, Tennessee in 1997.  Before their new home field at Nissan Stadium was completed for the 1999 season, the team played their first season in the Volunteer State in Memphis and their second at Vanderbilt University’s football stadium.  During these two seasons, they were known as the Tennessee Oilers, carrying over that famous name from Houston.  But when their new stadium was completed, Bud Adams decided it was time for a fresh start.

An advisory committee was appointed to come up with a new name for the team, and Adams requested a name that would reflect heroic qualities such as power, strength, and leadership.  In December 1998, it was announced that the football team would be called the Tennessee Titans for the upcoming ’99 season.  The Titans name met the qualities Adams sought, and also reflects one of the city’s nicknames, “The Athens of the South,” named so for Nashville’s colleges and universities, classical architecture, and full-scale replica of the Parthenon.  Adams also decided the team’s name should be the Tennessee Titans rather than the Nashville Titans because he wanted to represent the entire state of Tennessee, which is shown in the team’s logo featuring three red stars: one for the state’s biggest cities of Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville.

Garett