Tennessee Titans

Tennessee Titans
Current season
Established 1960 (1960) First season: 1960 Play in Nissan Stadium Nashville, Tennessee Headquartered in Saint Thomas Sports Park, Nashville, Tennessee
Logo Wordmark
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, Silver[1][2]
Mascot	T-Rac
Personnel
Owner(s)	KSA Industries
Chairman	Susie Adams Smith Amy Adams Strunk
CEO	Steve Underwood
President	Steve Underwood
General manager	Jon Robinson
Head coach	Mike Mularkey
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
In Houston Jeppesen Stadium (1960–1964) Rice Stadium (1965–1967) Houston Astrodome (1968–1996) In Memphis Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (1997) In Nashville Vanderbilt Stadium (1998) Nissan Stadium (1999–present) Former names: Adelphia Coliseum (1999–2002) The Coliseum (2002–2006) LP Field (2006–2015)

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 in Houston, Texas, as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). 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 Houston to Tennessee in 1997, and played at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season. The club moved to Nashville in 1998 and played in Vanderbilt Stadium. For those two years, the team was known as the "Tennessee Oilers", but changed its name to "Titans" in 1999. The team plays at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, which opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum. The Titans' training facility is at Saint Thomas Sports Park, a 31-acre (13 ha) site at the MetroCenter complex in Nashville.^[3]

History

Logos and uniforms

Houston/Tennessee Oilers logo, depicting an oil 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 against 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 during daytime contests on many occasions for 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 was 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 always wore the "Titans blue" jersey in their annual divisional game against the Houston Texans and for other selected home games which came mostly against a team from the old AFL (American Football League). Their selection in those games were representative of the organization's ties to Houston and the old AFL. In November 2006, the Titans introduced light "Titans blue" pants in a game at the Philadelphia Eagles. The pants were reminiscent of the ones donned by the Oilers. In December 2006, they combined the "Titans blue" pants with the "Titans blue" jersey to create an all "Titans blue" uniform – 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. They also wore the navy blue jerseys with the light blue pants against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 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,^[4] but not worn until 2013 — see below.

In 2009, the NFL and the Hall of Fame committee announced that the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills would begin the 2009 NFL 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.^[5] 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 nine inside of it (nine was the number McNair wore during his time with the Oilers/Titans).

From 2009 to 2012, the Titans did not wear an alternate jersey during any regular season games. It was not until 2013 that the team wore the navy blue jerseys twice in honor of the 15th anniversary as the "Titans."^[6] The Titans wore white jerseys for all games in 2014, for the exceptions of two preseason home games, in which the team wore their light "Titans blue" jerseys, and an October 26, 2014 game against the Houston Texans, in which the Titans wore their navy blue uniforms.^[7]

Beginning in 2015, navy blue became the team's primary home jersey color, marking the first time since 2007 that the Titans wore navy as their primary home jersey, though the team plans to continue wearing white jerseys for early-season hot-weather home games. The light "Titans blue" jersey, which was the team's primary jersey color from 2008 to 2014, became the team's alternate jersey for a second time.^[8][9]

Season-by-season records

Player information

Current roster

Retired numbers

^[10]

Pro Football Hall of Fame members

Texas Sports Hall of Fame

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^[11]

Franchise leaders

Bold denotes still active with team

Italics denote still active but not with team

Passing yards (regular season) (as of Week 3 of the 2016-17 season)^[12]

Rushing yards (regular season) (as of 2015–16 season)^[12]

Receiving yards (regular season) (as of 2015–16 season)^[12]

Coaching staff

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 (2014–2015)
• Mike Mularkey (2015–present)

Current staff

Radio and television

The flagship radio station of the Titans Radio Network 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.^[13]

The team had long resisted placing any of its games on Sirius XM Radio.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16]

Most preseason games are televised on WKRN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Nashville. WKRN-TV 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-TV 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-TV, NBC for Sunday Night Football broadcasts, and WKRN-TV, ABC for simulcasts of ESPN's Monday Night Football

Radio affiliates

See also

• List of American Football League players
• NFL Cheerleading

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tennessee Titans.

• 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 WFA Memphis Dynasty IWFL Tennessee Train
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	USL Nashville SC PDL Nashville SC U23 NPSL Chattanooga FC Inter Nashville FC Knoxville Force Memphis City FC 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