In the late 1950’s, Bud Adams partnered with Lamar Hunt to establish the American Football League, which would challenge the rival NFL’s dominance and eventually spawn a merger between the two leagues. With that, Bud Adams legacy was cemented as an early founder who helped shape the NFL as we know it today. So why after so many years is Bud Adams not a member of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. In today’s video we’ll take a look back at the history of some of Bud Adams’s most controversial moves and why that may be keeping him from enshrinement to the hall.
The Foolish Club
Before his interest in football, Bud Adams whose full name is Kennith Stanley Adams Jr. grew up in an oil family. His father, Kennith Stanley Adams Senior (nicknamed “Boots” Adams) was chairman of Phillips Petroleum company for 25 years. Bud’s uncle, William Wayne Keeler was also the CEO of Phillips Petroleum for several years. Following in his father and Uncle’s footsteps, Bud Adams would later start his own oil business, ADA Oil company in 1947 (now known as Adams Resources & Energy, Inc.). But Bud Adam’s interest in football may have grown while he was enrolled at the University of Kansas. Adams managed to make the varsity football team for one season, where he was teammates with future senator Bob Dole. Now, flashing forward several years to the late 1950’s when the NFL was rising in popularity. This increase in interest drew a lot of offers from potential buyers of teams. One such team, the struggling Chicago Cardinals, attracted multiple offers, Most notably from Bud Adams and a separate offer made by oil tycoon Lamar Hunt. Yet, both of their offers were rejected most likely because the owners of the Cardinals were only willing to sell a minority stake in the club and weren’t willing to cede full ownership. The rejection wouldn’t stop either of them, as Bud Adams then moved to try and convince the NFL to expand into Houston and create a new franchise there. At the same time, Lamar Hunt also tried to sway the NFL into expanding into the Dallas area instead. But once again, both attempts were rejected by NFL commissioner Bert Bell. The rejection came due to Commissioner Bell’s feelings that risking the NFL’s new found popularity by potentially oversaturating the market with new clubs was too big of a risk to take.
On the plane ride back from meeting with Commissioner Bell, Lamar Hunt came up with the idea of starting his own football league, one that would rival the NFL. Hunt then approached Bud Adams and other businessmen (some of whom had also made failed attempts to buy an NFL team), and asked them to join his league instead. Hunt planned to start a team in Dallas, and thought it would be perfect for Bud Adams to have a team in Houston, creating a natural rivalry between the two teams. On August 3, 1959 in Bud Adams’ boardroom, the brand new team owners got together to announce the formation of the American Football League, and nicknamed themselves “The Foolish Club” for their seemingly unwise attempt to take on the imposing NFL. The formation of the AFL would force NFL commissioner Bert Bell’s hand on expansion, with the NFL granting franchises to the Dallas Cowboys in 1960 and the Minnesota Vikings in 1961.
The Championship Years
Bud Adams’ new team in Houston, drawing from his own family’s background in the oil business, would be known as the “Houston Oilers”. In the early years of the franchise, The Oilers achieved immediate success appearing in the first three AFL championship games. Led by Heisman Trophy winner running back Billy Cannon, the Oilers defeated the San Diego Chargers in back to back championships, in 1960 and ‘61. But those wins weren’t without controversy, when Bud Adams signed Billy Cannon to the Oilers in 1960, Cannon had reportedly already signed a contract with the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL. In a rare high roller move, Adams was so determined not to let Cannon slip away, he even paid $73,000 in legal expenses just to keep Cannon from playing with the Rams. This made Adams a constant thorn in the Rams general manager and future NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle’s side. Bud Adams even confidently once said about the NFL, “I am going to sign all of my draft picks and any other player the other league may be after.” Meanwhile, the back to back championships gave Bud Adams bragging rights over the other AFL owners and it looked as though Adams and the Oilers would be the next great football dynasty. However, the Oilers lost their bid for a “three-peat”, when they were defeated by the Dallas Texans in a double overtime game during the 1962 AFL championship game.
Luv Yah Blue
In 1965, a brand new domed stadium called the “Astrodome” opened its doors for the first time. The Astrodome was dubbed the world’s first multi-purpose domed venue and was nicknamed the “eighth wonder of the world” for its space age look and special use of synthetic turf, nicknamed “Astroturf”. At the time, it was widely expected that the Houston Oilers would move in and play at the Astrodome. Prior to that, the team had played at the University of Houston from 1960 to 64 and Rice University from 1965 to 67. But, negotiations between Adams and Roy Hofheinz, the owner of the Houston Astros and the Astrodome, did not go well initially. Adams was notoriously tight-fisted when it came to team finances, and preferred to cut costs wherever he could to offset the highest paid players salaries on the Oilers’ team payroll. Eventually by 1968, Bud Adams and Roy Hofheniz came to an agreement and the Houston Oilers became the first football team to play in a domed stadium when they moved into the Astrodome (which became their home for the next 28 years).
By the mid 1960’s, the AFL had firmly established itself as a real threat to the NFL’s dominance and in 1966 it was officially announced that the two leagues would merge. After the merger, Houston would struggle in the standings finishing last place in the AFC central division for four straight seasons between 1970 and 1973. The team’s fortunes would begin to change around the mid to late 1970’s, with the arrival of charismatic head coach Bum Philips, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, and future hall of farmers Elvin Bethea and Earl Campbell. This core group became a sensation in Houston and would usher in a new era of Oilers’ football dubbed, “Luv Yah Blue”. Earl Campbell would go on to win rookie of the year, and would help the Oilers make the AFC championship game two years in a row in 1978 and 1979. However, the Oilers were defeated both times by the eventual Super Bowl winners the Pittsburgh Steelers. The following year, the Oilers made the playoffs once more but disappointingly were eliminated in the Wild Card game against the Oakland Raiders.
In another controversial move by Bud Adams, immediately following the playoff loss to the Raiders, head coach Bum Phillips was fired. The move was made despite Phillips coaching the Oilers to another winning 11-5 season and leading the team through their most successful era since joining the NFL. The reported reason for Phillips’ firing was because he failed to hire an offensive coordinator but also allegedly due to his failure to report a player’s recreational drug use until after the season had ended. The change of leadership didn’t not help and things after that quickly began to spiral downward. The next few seasons would be disastrous for the team, who only won 13 games over the span of four seasons. Some of that was in part due to a strike shortened season in 1982, but the team also disappointedly struggled to build on the AFC championship runs from just a few years prior. Fan favorite Earl Cambell had become frustrated with his reduced playing time, and demanded to be traded towards the end of the 1983 season. After the Oilers lost the first six games of the next season, Campbell was traded to the New Orleans Saints for a first round draft pick. With Bum Phillips and Earl Campbell’s departures, it effectively ended the Luv Yah Blue era for the Oilers.
Relocation
During the Oilers struggles throughout the 1980s, Bud Adams continued to grow increasingly frustrated with the team’s stadium situation. By the mid 1980’s, Bud Adams actually threatened to move the team to Jacksonville Florida if the Astrodome wasn’t brought up to date with new renovations. Harris County, where the Astrodome is located, offered to pay for improvements to the aging stadium. At the time, the venue only seated 50,000 fans, which was the smallest capacity in the NFL. The funds would be paid for through mostly tax increases on properties and hotels. However, Adams had further demands on improvements, which ballooned the estimated cost of renovations to 67 million dollars. The back and forth over the final cost of the renovations would create lasting tension between the Oilers and the city of Houston that would foreshadow an even bigger fight in the coming years.
By the end of 1993, even with the improvements to the Astrodome just six years prior, Bud Adams continued to threaten to leave Houston if no new stadium deal could be agreed upon. The city of Houston had no interest in spending more money to build a new stadium after the most recent costly renovations. Also, Houston was in a tough position because all of it’s major sports franchises, the Houston Oilers, Astros and Rockets, were in need of new stadiums and arenas during this time. Bud Adams had the idea of building a new domed multipurpose stadium that could also be the home for the Rockets, similar to the Alamo dome in San Antonio with the Spurs. He even offered to pay 25 percent of the building costs, but after some time trying to convince the mayor of Houston Bob Lanier (LA-NEAR) to publicly support the plan, Adams realized he needed to start looking elsewhere. A secret meeting was then set up between Nashville’s mayor Phil Bredsen and Bud Adams about potentially relocating to Tennessee. The city of Nashiville even offered to pay 144 million towards building a new stadium plus another 70 million to cover ticket sales. With this enticing offer, and the lack of momentum for a new stadium in Houston, it became clear that Bud Adams wasn’t going to get the funding necessary to build a new stadium in Houston. With that, it was revealed during the 1995 season that the Oilers would be officially moving to Nashville, Tennessee for the 1998 season.
Once the announcement was made, fans in Houston understandably had little interest in supporting the Oilers anymore. Not surprisingly, ticket sales for the 1996 season tanked, with the team attracting more than 30,000 fans only three times that season. The last home game of the 1996 season, on December 15, attracted the smallest attendance in franchise history with just over 15,000 fans showing up. The league had to step in due to ticket sales plummeting, and an NFL blackout rule that prevented fans in the local market from even watching Oilers games at home due to them not being sellouts. Bud Adams and NFL reached an agreement with Houston to be let out of their lease a year early so that they could move to Nashville. However, Nashville wasn’t ready for the Oilers to move in just yet. They were still constructing the stadium that would be their new home, and the largest football stadium at that time in Nashville was Vanderbelt stadium that only seated 41,000. Bud Adams then made the decision to play in Memphis, Tennessee at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
Titan Up
The newly branded Tennessee Oilers however, quickly found themselves in the same situation they had when they had left Houston. Fans in Memphis had no interest in supporting a team they would lose in two seasons, and so the Oilers once again played in front of the smallest crowds in the NFL. Of the first seven home games in Memphis none of them sold more than 27,000 tickets to a stadium that seated 62,000. Even with the struggling attendance, Bud Adams was determined to stick it out in Memphis. That would change however, during the last home game of the 1997 season. The Oilers hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of a nearly full crowd of 50,677. But most of the 50,000 fans were actually Steeler fans, with some estimating at least three quarters of the crowd were supporting Pittsburgh. Adams was so embarrassed by the lack of support that he decided to leave Memphis and have the team play at Vanderbelt’s stadium after all. On November 14, 1998 the Oilers officially changed their name to the “Tennessee Titans”. The team would still hold onto all the Oilers old team records, and history. With one last slap to the face of Houston fans, the NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue moved to retire the name “Oilers” so that no other future NFL team in Houston could have that name.
Bud Adams’ legacy in the world of professional football is one marked by both triumphs and controversies. As the founder of the Houston Oilers, Adams played a pivotal role in the growth of the AFL and its subsequent merger with the NFL. Despite facing criticism for controversial decisions such as relocating the Oilers to Tennessee, Adams’ impact on the sport is undeniable. In 2013, Adams had this to say about the hall of fame , “One thing I would like to accomplish is to be considered in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I realize there may be some hard feelings about me moving the team to Nashville, but I truly feel my body of work …“I don’t like tooting my own horn. But at my age, and now being the senior NFL owner, there is no one from back in those days than can really speak up for me now. I really feel this year could be a year I get serious consideration after 53 years. I’m sure hoping that’s the case.” But it was not meant to be, as Bud Adams died shortly after at the age of 90 and has yet to be elected as a member of the hall of fame. However, Adams’ legacy lives on through the evolution of the Houston Oilers into the Tennessee Titans, and the lasting influence he had on the growth of professional football.
So what did you guys think about Bud Adams not yet being a member of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame? Do you think he belongs there, or do you think he should remain out of the hall? Let me know in the comments below!
If you guys enjoyed this video, check out my video on what happened to the Houston Oilers which goes further into the aftermath of the Oilers leaving Houston . As always, please like and subscribe if you haven’t already and thanks for watching!
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