Bud Adams
Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was an American businessman who was the founder and owner of the Houston Oilers of the American Football League, of which he was also a co-founder. The franchise eventually was moved to Nashville, where it was re-named the Tennessee Titans, a National Football League (NFL) franchise. A member of the Cherokee Nation who originally made his fortune in the petroleum business, Adams was chairman and CEO of Adams Resources & Energy Inc., a wholesale supplier of oil and natural gas. He was instrumental in the founding and establishment of the former American Football League (AFL).[1]
Personal information
January 3, 1923
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, U.S.
October 21, 2013 (aged 90)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Kansas (1942)
United States
World War II: Pacific Theater
Adams became a charter AFL owner with the establishment of the Oilers (now the "Titans"). He was the senior owner (by duration) with his team, now in the National Football League, a few months ahead of Buffalo Bills' owner Ralph Wilson. Adams also was one of the owners of the Houston Mavericks of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the owner of the second Nashville Kats franchise of the Arena Football League (AFL). He was elected to the American Football League Hall of Fame, an online site, but as of 2024 is not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, despite several nominations and an ongoing effort to make him such.
Adams had many other business interests in the Houston area, including owning several Lincoln-Mercury automobile franchises.
Early life[edit]
Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma on January 3, 1923, Adams was the son of K. S. "Boots" Adams and Blanch Keeler Adams. He was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation by virtue of his maternal line. Two of his great-grandmothers were Cherokee women who married European-American men: Nelson Carr and George B. Keeler, who played roles in trade and oil in early Oklahoma. Keeler drilled the first commercial oil well, near the Caney River.[2]
Adams's father succeeded the founder Frank Phillips as president of Phillips Petroleum Company in 1939.[3] Adams's uncle William Wayne Keeler, CEO of Phillips Petroleum Company for years, was appointed Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in 1949 and served through 1971, when the Cherokee were allowed to hold their own elections. Keeler was then democratically elected and served until 1975.[4] Adams's ancestors include other prominent Cherokee leaders.[2]
Adams graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1940 after lettering in three sports. After a brief stint at Menlo College, he transferred to the University of Kansas (KU), where he played briefly on the varsity football team as he completed an engineering degree. In his lone season on the Jayhawk football team, he was a teammate of politician Bob Dole.[5]
Sports career in Houston[edit]
Early career in the American Football League[edit]
Adams soon became interested in owning an NFL team.
The Houston Oilers and the Astrodome[edit]
Adams and the other AFL owners received a tremendous boost in credibility and net worth in 1966 with the merger of the AFL with and into the NFL. It was effective with the 1970 season. In 1968 Adams moved his team into the Astrodome, which since 1965 had been the home of the Houston Astros of baseball's National League (incidentally, Adams was one of the original part-owners of the team for the 1962 season). [6]
Sports career in Tennessee[edit]
Tennessee Oilers[edit]
Despite the problems, Adams initially intended to stick it out. However, only one game, the finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, attracted a larger crowd than could have been accommodated at Vanderbilt. Although 50,677 people showed up, the crowd appeared to be composed of at least half, and as many as three-fourths, Steeler fans, leading Adams to move the franchise to Nashville.[8]
The Oilers had had a proud history in Houston, winning the first two AFL Championships, which were the city's first major league titles, and featuring American Football League Hall of Fame enshrinees and all-stars such as George Blanda, Charlie Hennigan, and Billy Cannon. Whatever the reasons, his wrenching of the storied franchise from Houston cost him the disdain not only of Houston supporters, but of AFL fans across the U. S.
Adams fell further from their favor by taking legal action that prevents any Major League Professional Football team from ever using the nickname "Oilers". The NFL was an accessory to that action, which it interestingly supported, while it allowed the city of Cleveland to keep the nickname of the Cleveland Browns after that franchise was moved to Baltimore. Although Adams was already a member of the American Football League Hall of Fame, his moving of the Oilers and invalidating their nickname caused AFL historian Angelo F. Coniglio to also place him in the "AFL Hall of Infamy".