Houston Oilers

Houston Oilers
Established 1960 Ended 1996 Played in Houston, Texas
Logo Wordmark
League/conference affiliations
American Football League (AFL) (1960–1969) Eastern Division (1960–1969) National Football League (1970–1996) American Football Conference (1970–1996) AFC Central (1970–1996)
Uniform (1987–1996)
Team colors	Columbia blue, red, white
Fight song	Luv Ya Blue/Houston Oilers #1
Mascot	The Roughneck
Personnel
Owner(s)	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
Houston Oilers (1960–1996) Tennessee Oilers (1997–1998) Tennessee Titans (1999–present)
Championships
League championships (2) AFL championships (pre-1970 AFL–NFL merger) 1960, 1961
Conference championships (0)
Division championships (6) AFL East: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967 AFC Central 1991, 1993
Playoff appearances (15)
AFL: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1969 NFL: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
Home fields
Jeppesen Stadium (1960–1964) Rice Stadium (1965–1967) Houston Astrodome (1968–1996)

The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996. The Oilers began play as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) and won two AFL championships before joining the NFL in the AFL–NFL merger of the late 1960s.

The Oilers competed in the AFL's East division – along with the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets and the Boston Patriots – until the merger, when they joined the newly formed AFC Central. The team played home games at Jeppesen Stadium and Rice Stadium during its first eight seasons, and thereafter at the Astrodome.

The Houston Oilers were the first champions of the American Football League, winning the 1960 and 1961 championships, but never won another. The Oilers appeared in the 1962 AFL Championship, losing in double overtime to their in-state rivals, the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs); they also won the AFL East Division title in 1967 and qualified for the AFL Playoffs in 1969, both times losing to the Oakland Raiders. From 1978 to 1980, the Oilers, led by Bum Phillips and in the midst of the Luv Ya Blue campaign, appeared in and lost the 1978 and 1979 AFC Championship Games. The Oilers were a consistent playoff team from 1987 to 1993, 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 of the 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 Houston Oilers' main colors were Columbia blue and white, with scarlet trim, while their logo was a simple derrick. Oilers jerseys were always Columbia blue for home and white for away. The helmet color was Columbia blue with a white derrick from 1960 through 1965, silver with a Columbia blue derrick from 1966 through 1971, and Columbia blue with a white-and-scarlet derrick from 1972 through 1974, before changing to a white helmet with a Columbia blue derrick beginning in 1975 and lasting the remainder of the team's time in Houston.

The team was owned by Bud Adams, who began threatening to move the team in the late 1980s, and finally did so after the 1996 season. He moved the team to Tennessee, where they played as the Tennessee Oilers in Memphis for the 1997 season, then in Nashville for the 1998 seasons. In 1999, to coincide with the opening of their new stadium, Adams changed the team name to the Tennessee 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 name was retired by then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, thus preventing a future Houston NFL team from using the Houston Oilers' name.^[1]

Later Houston-based football teams have paid homage to the Oilers. The Houston Roughnecks, an XFL 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] The University of Houston football team wore Oilers-style throwback uniforms during the Cougars' 2023 season opener against UTSA.^[3]