Home > Bud Adams

Mr. Adams has many business interests in the Houston area. He originally made his fortune in the petroleum business. His other business interests are of considerably less interest to the general reading public than those regarding professional football, and his football interests will be the focus of this article.

K.S. Adams, Jr. served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II in the Pacific Theater of operations. Upon his return to the U.S., he, like many of his fellow Texans, went to work in the petroleum industry and was a successful "wildcatter". He made a considerable fortune, and became interested in the prospects of owning a professional football team. In the mid 1950s there was not a major professional football team in operation in Texas, despite a level of interest in the sport probably unexceeded in any other state, and equalled in only a few.

Bud Adams was one of the charter team owners in the former American Football League, which was announced in 1959 and played its first games in 1960. He had previously talked with several figures in the National Football League, including George HalasGeorge Stanley Halas ( February 2, 1895 October 31, 1983), nicknamed Papa Bear and Mr. Everything was an American player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional football and the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears. Halas, born in Chicago, of the Chicago BearsThe Chicago Bears are a National Football League team based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded 1920 in Decatur, Illinois. One of the charter NFL franchises. Formerly known as the Decatur Staleys (1920) and the Chicago Staleys (1921), after their corporate spon and commissioner Bert BellBert Bell ( 1895- 1959) was co-founder (with Lud Wray) of the Frankford Yellowjackets in 1924 (whose name was changed to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1933), and commissioner of the National Football League from 1946 until his death. He was responsible for c, about getting an NFL expansion franchise, but met with frustration and decided to go another direction. He is probably less associated with the formation of the AFL in the mind of the general public than fellow Texan and AFL team owner Lamar HuntLamar Hunt born August 2, 1932 in El Dorado, Arkansas, is one of the most influential sportsmen in the United States. The son of oil tycoon H. Hunt, Lamar Hunt is a 1956 graduate of Southern Methodist University with a B. degree in geology. A college foot, but was probably almost as crucial to the league's remaining a viable business venture in its early years, as he and Hunt were more financially stable than some of the other early owners. Particularly crucial to the league's early years was Adams' relationship with Harry Wimser , original owner of the New York Titans franchise (now the New York JetsThe New York Jets are a National Football League team that plays its home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but is based on Long Island. Founded: 1960 (charter American Football League (AFL) member; joined the NFL in the 1970 merger) :Formerly known a). The New York Titans played in the rotting remains of the old Polo GroundsThe Polo Grounds was the name given to 4 different stadiums in New York City used by Major League Baseball's New York Giants from 1883 until 1957, and by the New York Mets in their first two seasons of 1962 and 1963. The original Polo Grounds was built in and were largely either derided or ignored by the New York media, and Adams' help was essential in keeping Wismer's team in business until it could be sold to more financially capable ownership and moved into Shea StadiumShea Stadium Location Flushing, Queens, New York Opened April 17, 1964 Capacity 55,601 Owned By City of New York Architect: Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury Dimensions: Left Left-Center Center Right-Center Right 338 ft. Shea Stadium is a baseball stadium in Fl. Without a New York franchise, U.S. television networks have limited interest in a team sports league, as it is by far the largest media market in the U.S..

Adams' team was the best of the beginning period of the AFL, winning the first two championship games behind the quarterbacking and kicking of former Bears reject George Blanda, and losing the third in sudden death overtime in what was until that point the longest game of American football ever played. This success was not to be duplicated by the team during the rest of its time in Texas.

Adams and the other AFL owners received a tremendous boost in credibility and net worth when the merger of the AFL with and into the NFL was announced in 1966, effective with the 1970 season. In 1968 Adams moved his team into the Houston Astrodome, which had been, since 1965, the home of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. While this took the hot, humid Houston weather during the early part of the season away as a consideration and made Adams' team the first pro football team ever to play its home games in a domed stadium, the Astrodome had several downsides as a venue for the Oilers. Its round shape made for poor sight lines for football. Also, it meant that the seats that should have been the most desirable (and expensive), those near the fifty-yard line, were in fact the farthest from the field of play, while those nearest the action were otherwise-undesirable seats in the end zone. Additionally, it seated only about 50,000 for football and was by the early 1980s the smallest venue in the NFL with regards to seating capacity. Also, Adams chafed at being the Astrodome's "secondary" tenant, but this was unlikely to change as long as the Astros were playing eighty-one home games there and his team was playing eight, and he knew this.

In the mid-1980s Adams began to shop the team to other cities. His sincerity about actually moving the team at this juncture has been called into question. However, he did get several improvements made to the Astrodome largely as a result of this threat. The main scoreboard was moved to a better location for football, more football seating was added, and an attempt to improve sight lines for football was made. Adams was temporarily placated, but had done considerable damage to his popularity and credibility in Houston with his apparent willingness to move the team. He was already somewhat less than popular due to his seeming mishandling of the team. In the late 1970s the Oilers had again risen to football prominence. Had this era not coincided with one of the NFL's all-time great teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the same time period, which at the time competed in the same AFC division, the Oilers almost undoubtedly would have won, or at least played in, a Super Bowl. As it was, they were nonetheless extremely popular, especially their coach, Texan "Bum" Phillips. The Astrodome became known as one of the loudest venues in the NFL and one of the hardest for a visiting team to win at, nicknamed the "House of Pain". But Adams always had a tendency to mircromanage the Oilers, more than most owners, especially those who did not have a background as former coaches or players. He was rumored, in fact, to require that all team expenditures of $200 or over be personally approved by him. When the Oilers failed to win any championships he fired Phillips, and the team soon afterwards became a laughingstock, most of the Houston sporting public blamed Adams. This era of rotation between mediocrity and disaster was to last several years, but by 1987, the ship seemed to have been righted again, at least on the field, and the Oilers were to make the AFC playoffs every year from then until 1993, each time losing short of appearing in the Super Bowl.

By the mid- 1990s, several NFL teams had new stadiums built largely or entirely with public funding, and several more such deals had been agreed to. These new venues featured amenities such as "club seating" and other potential revenue streams which were not part of the NFL's revenue-sharing arrangements. Adams began to lobby then-Houston mayor Bob Lanier for a new stadium for his team. Lanier disliked Adams intensely, and told him that what had been done for him a decade earlier, which had been financed with bonds to be paid off over thirty years, was enough. With this, Adams again began to shop the team to other cities. He had taken particular notice in the offer that had been made by Nashville, Tennessee to the ownership of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League to become the primary tenant of a new arena then under construction in downtown Nashville (and now called the Gaylord Entertainment Center). While this deal was never to be consummated (Nasvhille eventually received the NHL expansion franchise now called the Nashville Predators), Adams wondered what sort of offer might be made to him regarding a venue for his NFL team. After meeting with then-Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen on several occasions, a deal was announced which would bring the Oilers to Nashville effective in the 1997 season to a new stadium to be built across the Cumberland River from downtown Nashville, largely with city and state funds. Nashville opponents of this arrangement forced the issue to a referendum vote, which passed easily, with over 57% of those voting in favor of it.

Adams' opponents in Houston were not idle during this time. Houston Representative Tom DeLay even introduced a bill in Congress banning the move, which eventually did not pass. Lawsuits were filed as well, but all were dismissed in a way favorable to Adams. His immediate problem became having a suitable place to play prior to the completion of the new stadium in Nashville. The 1996 "lame duck" season in the Astrodome was a disaster, with crowds so sparse at times that the few in attendance (and watching on television or listening on radio) could hear all of the action on the field, including play calling, collisions, and the players talking to one another, even the occasional profanity. In addition, the Oilers' radio network, formerly statewide, was reduced to a single station in Houston and a few new affiliates in Tennessee. All of this was unacceptable to both Adams and the league, and it was announced that the next two seasons would be played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis while the new Nashville stadium was being completed (the opening of it having been forced back a year by the time necessary to get the appropriate enabling measure on the ballot in Nashville).

The 1997 season in Memphis proved to be almost as disastrous as the the prior year's in the Astrodome had been. Whether Memphians were so disappointed at their own city's numerous failures to get professional football in its own right, or their longtime rivaly with and disdain for Nashville was the primary culprit, the Oilers faced crowds almost as small, and almost as indifferent-to-hostile, as those who had watched them the previous season in Houston. Until the final game, Adams announced every intention of staying the course in Memphis for two years until the Nashville stadium was completed. However, that final 1997 game, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, proved such an embarrassment to Adams that this plan was changed. The only really large crowd of the entire season appeared to outside observers to be comprised of at least two-thirds Steelers fans, if not more. This caused the scrapping of the plan to play the 1998 season at the Liberty Bowl, and Adams announced that it would instead be played in Nashville in the 41,000-seat on-campus stadium at Vanderbilt University.

When only four of the eight regular-season home games at Vanderbilt sold out for the 1998 season, it began to appear as if the move of the team was going to be a net loss for all concerned. Also, a major tornado had hit the downtown Nashville area in the interim, tearing directly through the new stadium construction site and knocking two tower cranes down onto what is now the playing surface, and for a while the timely completion of the new stadium appeared to be in doubt. But superb work by the contractors and some apparent slack time having been built into the construction schedule obviated the need to play any more games at Vanderbilt. Oilers players becoming personally involved involved in the post-tornado cleanup proved to be a public-relations bonanza for Adams and his team, as did a large charitable contribution made by Adams to relief for the storm's victims. The overall effect of the storm, incredibly, had seemingly had been a positive development for Adams and the Oilers, and more than a few fans, some of them quite seriously, suggested renaming the team the "Tennessee Twisters".

The following year and the team's arrival at their new stadium was to change almost everything that had occurred in the three previous seasons. (The team had by this time become the only team in NFL history to play four consecutive "home" seasons at four different venues.) Adams announced that the team would henceforth be known as the Tennessee Titans, that navy blue and silver would be added to the team's color scheme of red, Columbia blue, and white, and that new logos reflecting the tri-star design of the Tennessee state flag would be used. Apparently much of the delay in the change of name and logo had been related to Adams exacting a promise from the NFL that, unlike the Cleveland Browns, no future expansion team would ever be granted the rights to use the name "Oilers", which was to be permanently retired as far as the NFL was concerned. The new Titans merchandise featuring this color scheme and the new logos became some of the best-selling in the NFL, and every home game played in what is now called The Coliseum (originally Adelphia Coliseum under a now-terminated naming rights arrangement) has sold out. The 1999 campaign ended with the Adams' and the team's first ever trip to the Super Bowl, and even though he did not see them win, his pride in the team, and their ongoing success, has made him a fairly popular figure in Nashville, particularly considering that he maintains his primary residence in Houston and rarely visits Nashville except for games and team-related functions. A note of concern, however, has been raised by his reassuming the presidency of the team after having hired former Minnesota Vikings executive Jeff Diamond to run it day-to-day in 1999. When Diamond's five-year contract expired in early 2004 it was not renewed despite the team's stellar performance during his tenure (a better win-loss record during that time than any other NFL franchise). Whether Adams will revert to his past tendencies to micromanage the team remains to be seen, but it will be seemingly somewhat more difficult for him to do than it was when the team was based near him in Houston.

Adams was also, like several other NFL owners, awarded the rights to operate an Arena football franchise in Nashville, to replace the former Nashville Kats, which left for Atlanta at the end of the 2001 season, and to revive the former team name. Adams even hired the Kats' former head coach, Pat Speurduto, to head this proposed Arena operation. For a protracted period after this franchise was arranged, Adams was unable to work out an agreement with the Gaylord Entertaiment Center's primary tenant, the Nashville Predators. He investigated other options, such as modifying the existing Titans' indoor practice facility to host the games, and even playing them at the old Nashville Municipal Auditorium, which would have required extensive modification in order to make the playing surface of sufficient size, and announced at one point that he was considering the construction of his own new venue to seat 11,000 to 13,000 people which would also be available for other events. This last option proved to be short-lived when it became apparent that such a facility could not realistically be built in today's environment for a cost of $30,000,000, as had seemingly been suggested to him. The Arena Football League apparently granted at least two extensions to the original time frame in which the franchise was awarded, which at first called for it to be in operation by 2003 or the reported $4,000,000 franchise fee to be forfeited, and this patience was apparently rewarded on August 2, 2004, when it was announced that an Arena team would be returning to the Gaylord Entertainment Center for the 2005 season. On November 1, 2004, Adams announced that he had sold a substantial minority interest in the Arena team to country music singer Tim McGraw.