Tennessee Titans

Tennessee Titans
Current season
Established 1960 (1960) Play in Nashville, Tennessee Headquartered in Saint Thomas Sports Park, Nashville, Tennessee
Logo
League/conference affiliations
American Football League Eastern Division (1960–1969) National Football League (1970–present) American Football Conference (1970–present) AFC Central (1970–2001) AFC South (2002–present)
Current uniform
Team colors	Navy, Titans Blue, Red, White, Silver
Mascot	T-Rac
Personnel
Owner(s)	KSA Industries [1]
Chairman	Susie Adams Smith Co-Chairman Amy Adams Hunt Co-Chairman [1]
CEO	Thomas Smith [1]
President	Thomas Smith [1]
General manager	Ruston Webster
Head coach	Ken Whisenhunt
Team history
Houston Oilers (1960–1996) Tennessee Oilers (1997–1998) Tennessee Titans (1999–present)
Championships
League championships (2) AFL Championships 1960, 1961
Conference championships (1) AFC: 1999
Division championships (9) AFL East: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967 AFC Central: 1991, 1993, 2000 AFC South: 2002, 2008
Playoff appearances (21)
AFL: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1969 NFL: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008
Home fields
Jeppesen Stadium (1960–1964) Rice Stadium (1965–1967) Houston Astrodome (1968–1996) Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (1997) Vanderbilt Stadium (1998) LP Field (1999–present) a.k.a. Adelphia Coliseum (1999–2002) a.k.a. The Coliseum (2002–2006)

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team and one of the 32 franchises of the National Football League (NFL). Based in Nashville, Tennessee, the Titans are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC). Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 in Houston as a charter member of the American Football League. The Oilers won the first two AFL championships, and joined the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger in 1970.

The team relocated from Texas to Tennessee in 1997, and played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season. They moved to Nashville in 1998 and played in Vanderbilt Stadium. For those two years, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers, and changed its name to "Titans" in 1999. The team plays at LP Field in Nashville, which opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum. The Titans' training facility is at Saint Thomas Sports Park,^[2] a 31-acre (13 ha) site at the MetroCenter complex, located just north of downtown Nashville, about 5 miles (8 km) from LP Field.

History

Logos and uniforms

Houston/Tennessee Oilers logo, depicting an oil rig derrick, used prior to 1999.

Tennessee Oilers uniform: 1997–98

When the team debuted as the Houston Oilers in 1960, the club's logo was an oil rig derrick. Except for minor color changes throughout the years, this logo remained the same until the team was renamed the Titans in 1999. The logo was originally called "Ol' Riggy," but this was dropped before the start of the 1974 season.

The Oilers uniforms consisted of blue or white jerseys, red trim, and white pants. From 1966 through 1971, the pants with both the blue and white jerseys were silver, to match the color of the helmets. The team commonly wore light blue pants on the road with the white jerseys from 1972 through 1994, with the exception of the 1980 season, and selected games in the mid 80s, when the team wore an all-white road combination. For selected games in 1973 and 1974, and again from 1981 through 1984, the Oilers wore their white jerseys at home. The light blue pants were discarded by coach Jeff Fisher in 1995.

From 1960 to about 1965 and from 1972 to 1974, they wore blue helmets; from 1966 to 1971, the helmets were silver; and they were white from 1975 to 1998.

During the 1997–98 period when they were known as the "Tennessee Oilers", the team had an alternate logo that combined elements of the flag of Tennessee with the derrick logo. The team also wore their white uniforms in home games, as opposed to their time in Houston, when their blue uniforms were worn at home – in the two years as the Tennessee Oilers, the team only wore their colored jerseys twice, for road games against the Miami Dolphins and a Thanksgiving Day game against the Dallas Cowboys.

When the team was renamed the Titans, the club introduced a new logo: A circle with three stars, similar to that found on the flag of Tennessee containing a large "T" with a trail of flames similar to a comet. The uniforms consist of white helmets, red trim, and either navy or white jerseys. White pants are normally worn with the navy jerseys, and navy pants are worn with the white jerseys. On both the navy and white jerseys, the outside shoulders and sleeves are light "Titans Blue". In a game vs. the Washington Redskins in 2006, the Titans wore their navy jerseys with navy pants for the first time.

Since 2000, the Titans have generally worn their dark uniforms at home throughout the preseason and regular season. They have worn white at home in daytime contests for a few occasions in September home games to gain an advantage with the heat except in the 2005, 2006, and 2008 seasons.

The Titans introduced an alternate jersey in 2003 that is light "Titans Blue" with navy outside shoulders and sleeves. That jersey is usually worn with the road blue pants. When it was the alternate jersey from 2003 to 2007, the Titans wore the jersey twice in each regular season game (and once in the preseason). They would always wear the "Titans Blue" jersey in their divisional game against the Vince Young appeared in this uniform in the cover art for the Madden NFL 08 video game.

During the 2006 season, the Titans wore seven different uniform combinations, pairing the white jersey with all three sets of pants (white, Titans blue, navy blue), the navy jersey with the white and navy pants, and the Titans blue jersey with navy and Titans blue pants. In a 2007 against the Atlanta Falcons, the Titans paired the navy blue jersey with the Titans blue pants for the first time, a game which they won. They also did the navy blue jerseys with the light blue pants against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they lost that game. The team paired the Titans blue jerseys with the white pants for the first time on November 14, 2013 in a home game against the Indianapolis Colts.

In 2008, the "Titans Blue" jerseys became the regular home uniforms, with the navy blue jerseys being relegated to alternate status,^[3] but not worn until 2013 — see below.

In 2009, The NFL and Hall of Fame committee announced that the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills would kick-off the 2009 National Football League preseason in the Hall of Fame Game. The game, played on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Field at Fawcett Stadium, was nationally televised on NBC. The Titans defeated the Bills by a score of 21–18.^[4] In honor of the AFL's 50th anniversary, the Titans wore Oilers uniforms for this game. Also in 2009, the team honored former quarterback Steve McNair by placing a small, navy blue disc on the back of their helmets with a white number 9 inside of it (9 was the number McNair wore during his time with the Oilers/Titans).

From 2008–2012, the Titans did not wear an alternate jersey during any regular season games, until 2013, in which the team wore the navy blue jerseys twice in honor of the 15th anniversary as the "Titans."^[5] The Titans will wear white jerseys for all games in 2014, for the exception of an October 26 game vs. the Houston Texans, in which the Titans wore their navy blue uniforms.^[6]

Beginning in 2015, the navy blue jerseys will become the team's primary colored jersey. Tommy Smith, who was hired as the Titans' president and CEO following the death of longtime owner Bud Adams in 2013, is not a fan of the light "Titans Blue" design that had been the team's primary jersey color from 2008–2014.^[7]

Season-by-season records

Players of note

Current roster

Retired numbers^[8]

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame

Bud Adams established the Titans/Oilers Hall of Fame after the 40th season of the franchise to honor past players and management.^[9]

Coaches of note

Head coaches

• 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 (interim) (1983)
• Hugh Campbell (1984–1985)
• Jerry Glanville (1985–1989)
• Jack Pardee (1990–1994)
• Jeff Fisher (1994–2010)
• Mike Munchak (2011–2013)
• Ken Whisenhunt (2014–present)

Current staff

Radio and television

The Titans' flagship radio station for several years was WKDF 103.3-FM. However WGFX 104.5-FM, the original Tennessee Oilers/Titans Radio flagship station, again serves as the Titans Radio flagship station since the 2010 season. Mike Keith is the team's play-by-play announcer, and former Titans tight end Frank Wycheck provides color commentary during games. Previous to Wycheck, Pat Ryan provided the color commentary. Larry Stone is also a part of the team, providing injury and scoring updates. The Titans Radio Network is broadcast on some 70 other stations.^[11]

The team had long resisted placing any of its games on Sirius XM Radio.^[12] According to the Titans Radio Network, this was because the Titans' contract with Citadel Broadcasting (parent of both WKDF and WGFX) predated the arrival of satellite radio, thus there was no provision for the NFL to reserve satellite-radio rights.^[13] But in 2011, the Titans were able to extend their agreement with existing radio partners while creating a provision allowing home games to be broadcast on SiriusXM. They were the final team in the NFL to reach such a deal.^[14]

Most preseason games are televised on WKRN, the ABC affiliate in Nashville. WKRN also airs a weekly show on Tuesday nights. The show, called 'Titans on 2', was most recently hosted by Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt and WKRN anchors Cory Curtis and Audra Martin. The show is an opportunity for the coach to talk about the team's latest matchup and looks forward to the upcoming game.

For regular season games, WTVF, the CBS affiliate for Nashville is the main station airing them. WZTV, FOX affiliate if they host an NFC team, WSMV, NBC for Sunday Night Football broadcasts, and WKRN, ABC for simulcasts of ESPN's Monday Night Football.

Radio Affiliates

Tennessee

Alabama

Arkansas

Kentucky

Mississippi

See also

• List of American Football League players
• NFL Cheerleading

References

External links

• Official website

Sports teams based in Tennessee Baseball PCL: Memphis Redbirds Nashville Sounds SL: Chattanooga Lookouts Jackson Generals Tennessee Smokies ApL: Elizabethton Twins Greeneville Astros Johnson City Cardinals Kingsport Mets Basketball NBA: Memphis Grizzlies Football NFL: Tennessee Titans PIFL: Nashville Venom WFA: Memphis Dynasty IWFL: Chattanooga Locomotion Memphis Belles Hockey NHL: Nashville Predators SPHL: Knoxville Ice Bears Roller derby WFTDA: Chattanooga Roller Girls Hard Knox Roller Girls Little City Roller Girls Memphis Roller Derby Nashville Rollergirls Soccer NPSL: Chattanooga FC Knoxville Force Nashville FC College athletics (NCAA Division I) Austin Peay Belmont Chattanooga East Tennessee State Lipscomb Memphis Middle Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee State Tennessee Tech UT-Martin Vanderbilt