Bud Adams

Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (born 1923 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma) is a businessman who owns the Tennessee Titans franchise in the National Football League. He was a charter owner in the former American Football League with the Titans' predecessor franchise, the Houston Oilers. Adams also was one of the owners of the Houston Mavericks of the American Basketball Association. He is also the former owner of the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football League.

Adams has many business interests in the Houston area. He originally made his fortune in the petroleum business and is chairman of Adams Resources, a wholesale supplier of oil and natural gas. He also owns Lincoln-Mercury automobile franchises.

Early life

Adams was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1923. He 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.

Adams served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II in the Pacific Theater of operations, and was discharged as a Lieutenant, Junior Grade. After the war, he returned to KU, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Shortly after his 1946 discharge, Adams' plane was fogbound in Houston, Texas. He liked the area, and decided to settle there. Soon afterward, he launched a wildcatting firm, ADA Oil Company, that eventually grew into Adams Resources. The company's basketball team was an Amateur Athletic Union powerhouse, finishing third nationally in 1956.

Early Career in the American Football League

Adams soon became interested in owning an NFL team. In 1959, Adams tried to buy the struggling Chicago Cardinals and move them to Houston. When that effort failed, he tried to get an expansion team, only to be turned down. A few days after returning to Houston, Adams got a call from fellow Texas oilman Lamar Hunt proposing a brand-new football league. They met several times that spring, and Hunt convinced Adams to field a team in Houston. In Hunt's view, a regional rivalry between Hunt's Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) and a Houston team would be critical to the league's growth. On August 3, Adams and Hunt held a press conference in Adams' boardroom to announce formation of the new league, which was formally named the American Football League a few weeks later.

Adams is probably less associated with the formation of the AFL in the mind of the general public than Hunt, but was probably almost as crucial to the league's success, as he and Hunt were more financially stable than some of the other early owners.

Adams helped establish the league by fighting and winning the battle with the NFL for LSU's All-American Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon. Particularly crucial to the league's early years was Adams' relationship with Harry Wismer, original owner of the league's New York franchise, the Titans. For their first three years, the Titans played in the rotting remains of the old Polo Grounds and were largely either derided or ignored by the New York media. Adams' help was essential in keeping Wismer's team in business until it could be sold to more financially capable ownership and moved into Shea Stadium as the Jets. Without a New York franchise, U.S. television networks have limited interest in a team sports league, as it is by far the largest media market in the U.S.

Adams' team was the best of the beginning period of the AFL, winning the first two championship games behind the quarterbacking and kicking of former Bears reject George Blanda, and losing the third in sudden death overtime in what was until that point the longest game of American football ever played, the 1962 AFL Championship game. His team played in a total of four AFL Championship games, and he is a member of the American Football League Hall of Fame. This success was not to be duplicated by the team during the rest of its time in Texas.

Houston Mavericks

Adams, along with wealthy Houston businessman T. C. Morrow, owned the Houston Mavericks, a franchise in the American Basketball Association, from 1967 through 1969. The team was not successful in Houston and its attendance was among the lowest in the league. After the 1968-1969 season the Mavericks, under new ownership, moved and became the Carolina Cougars.

The Houston Oilers and the Astrodome

Adams and the other AFL owners received a tremendous boost in credibility and net worth when the merger of the AFL with and into the NFL was announced in 1966, effective with the 1970 season. In 1968 Adams moved his team into the Astrodome, which had been, since 1965, the home of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. While this took the hot, humid Houston weather during the early part of the season away as a consideration and made Adams' team the first pro football team ever to play its home games in a domed stadium, the Astrodome had several downsides as a venue for the Oilers. Its round shape made for poor sight lines for football. The seats that should have been the most desirable (and expensive), those near the 50-yard line, were in fact the farthest from the field of play, while those nearest the action were otherwise-undesirable seats in the end zone. Additionally, it seated only about 50,000 for football and was by the early 1980s the smallest venue in the NFL with regards to seating capacity. Also, Adams chafed at being the Astrodome's "secondary" tenant, but this was unlikely to change as long as the Astros were playing 81 home games there and his team was playing eight, and he knew this.

Houston vs. Adams

Adams was initially a hero in Houston for making the city a major-league town, but his popularity tailed off during the Oilers' early NFL years. This was in part due to what was seen as his mishandling of the team. He had a tendency to micromanage the Oilers, which brought him considerable scrutiny especially since he had no background in the sport. For example, he required that any expenditures of $200 or over to be personally approved by him. He also made good on a threat to hold a fire sale if the Oilers didn't make the Super Bowl after the 1993 season.

However, in the late 1970s the Oilers had again risen to football prominence. Had they not been in the same division as one of the greatest teams in the history of the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Oilers would have almost certainly played in a Super Bowl during this time, and probably even won one. As it was, they were nonetheless extremely popular nationwide, especially their coach, Adams' fellow Texan O. A. "Bum" Phillips, who dressed, spoke, and acted much like the popular image of a rancher, which he in fact was. The Astrodome became known as the "House of Pain," and the Oilers were almost unbeatable there. After the Oilers lost two straight AFC championship games to the Steelers, Adams fired Phillips. The team soon afterwards became a laughingstock (they would not be a serious contender again until the late-1980s), and most of the Houston sporting public blamed Adams. This era of rotation between mediocrity and disaster was to last several years.

In 1987, Adams threatened to move the Oilers to Jacksonville, Florida unless significant improvements were made to the Astrodome. The city responded with a $67 million renovation that added 10,000 more seats, a new Astroturf carpet and 65 luxury boxes, and Adams promised that with the new improvemtns he would keep the team in Houston for 10 years. These improvements were funded by increases in property taxes and the doubling of the hotel tax, as well as bonds to be paid over 30 years (The city of Houston is still paying back the debt from the renovations they made to the Astrodome in 1987). That same year, the Oilers seemed to right themselves on the field as well, and made the AFC playoffs every year from then until 1993, each time falling short of appearing in the Super Bowl.

By the mid-1990s, several NFL teams had new stadiums built largely or entirely with public funding, and several more such deals had been agreed to. These new venues featured amenities such as "club seating" and other potential revenue streams which were not part of the NFL's revenue-sharing arrangements. Adams began to lobby Mayor Bob Lanier for a new stadium. Lanier told him that what had been done for him in 1987 was enough. With this, Adams again began to shop the team to other cities. He had taken particular notice in the offer that had been made by Nashville, Tennessee to the ownership of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League to become the primary tenant of a new arena then under construction in downtown Nashville (and now called the Sommet Center). While this deal was never to be consummated (Nasvhille eventually received an expansion team, the Nashville Predators), Adams wondered what sort of offer might be made to him regarding a venue for his NFL team. After meeting with then-Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen on several occasions, a deal was announced which would bring the Oilers to Nashville effective in the 1997 season to a new stadium (originally called Adelphia Coliseum, now known as LP Field) to be built across the Cumberland River from downtown Nashville, largely with city and state funds. Nashville opponents of this arrangement forced the issue to a referendum vote, which passed easily, with over 57% of those voting in favor.

Adams' opponents in Houston were not idle during this time. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, whose district included portions of Houston and its suburbs, even introduced a bill in Congress banning the move, which eventually did not pass. Lawsuits were filed as well, but all were dismissed in a way favorable to Adams. His immediate problem became having a suitable place to play prior to the completion of the new stadium in Nashville. The 1996 season in the Astrodome was a disaster after Adams announced the move, which was one year early than his promise to keep the team in Houston. The crowds were so sparse at times that some of the few in attendance (and watching on television or listening on radio) could hear all of the action on the field, including play calling, collisions, and the players talking to one another, even the occasional profanity. In addition, the Oilers' radio network, formerly statewide, was reduced to a single station in Houston and a few new affiliates in Tennessee. All of this was unacceptable to both Adams and the league, and it was announced that the next two seasons would be played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis while the new Nashville stadium was being completed. Its opening had been forced back a year by the time necessary to get the appropriate enabling measure on the ballot in Nashville. The largest stadium in the Nashville area at the time, Vanderbilt Stadium on the campus of Vanderbilt University, seated only 41,000 and was considered inadequate even as a temporary home for anything beyond preseason games. Further, the Oilers were concerned that Vanderbilt refused to permit the sale of alcohol in the stadium, a source of considerable revenue.

The Tennessee Oilers

The 1997 season in Memphis proved to be almost as disastrous as the prior years in the Astrodome had been. Whether it was out of disappointment at their own city's numerous failures to get professional football in its own right, or their longtime rivalry with and disdain for Nashville was the primary culprit, Memphians showed almost no interest in the Oilers. Nashvillians balked at travelling 210 miles to see "their" team, especially since Interstate 40 between the two cities was undergoing a major reconstruction near Memphis at the time. As a result, the Oilers played before some of the smallest NFL crowds since the 1950s. For many games, there appeared to be more visiting fans than Oiler fans.

Despite this, Adams initially had every intention of staying the course in Memphis for two years. 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 two-thirds, Steelers fans. Adams was so embarrassed that he scrapped plans to play the 1998 season at the Liberty Bowl, and instead opted to play at Vanderbilt after all.

When only four of the eight regular-season home games at Vanderbilt sold out for the 1998 season, it began to appear as if the move of the team was going to be a net loss for all concerned. Also, a major tornado had hit the downtown Nashville area in the interim, tearing directly through the new stadium construction site and knocking two tower cranes down onto what is now the playing surface, and for a while the timely completion of the new stadium appeared to be in doubt. But superb work by the contractors and some apparent slack time having been built into the construction schedule obviated the need to play any more games at Vanderbilt. Oilers players becoming personally involved in the post-tornado cleanup proved to be a public-relations bonanza for Adams and his team, as did a large charitable contribution made by Adams to relief for the storm's victims. The overall effect of the storm, incredibly, had seemingly been a positive development for Adams and the Oilers. More than a few fans, some of them quite seriously, suggested renaming the team the "Tennessee Twisters".

The Tennessee Titans

The following year and the team's arrival at their new stadium was to change almost everything that had occurred in the three previous seasons. (The team had by this time become the only team in NFL history to play four consecutive "home" seasons at four different venues.) During the 1998 season, Adams announced that the team would change its name to one better suited for its new home. He also announced that navy blue would be added to the team's color scheme, and that this team would be considered to be the continuation of the former Oilers franchise, retaining all Oilers team records. He also announced that he would open a Hall of Fame at the new stadium to honor the greatest players from both eras. In fact, Adams' desire to ensure that no NFL team in Houston would revive the Oilers name was thought to be one of the major causes of the delay in announcing a new name for the team; he did not desire the experience which had occurred with the "Cleveland Browns" name to be repeated. A blue-ribbon committee yielded the nickname Titans.

The rechristened Titans in their new stadium proceeded to finish the 1999 regular season with a 13-3 record but nonetheless qualified for the playoffs only as a wild-card team. In their first-round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills, they won on a wild, controversial last-minute kickoff return play which the media dubbed the "Music City Miracle". The kickoff, caught by fullback Lorenzo Neal, was handed off to tight end Frank Wycheck, who then made a lateral pass to wide receiver Kevin Dyson. Dyson ran the ball 75 yards down the sideline while Buffalo's defense had converged on Wycheck on the other side of the field. Many Bills fans contended it was an illegal forward pass, though officials ruled it a lateral and subsequent video analysis backed up the ruling on the field. After the game, Adams recognized some of the local Houston media in attendance and faced the cameras, flipping them off with his AFC championship ring on, and said "Tell Bob I said hello," referring to Lanier. The team went on to win two subsequent playoff games and appear in its first-ever (and, as of 2007, only) Super Bowl appearance, in Atlanta's Georgia Dome losing 23-16 to the St. Louis Rams, having come just one yard short of a touchdown on the game's final play that would have likely sent the game into overtime had the extra point after the touchdown been made. It was one of the most thrilling conclusions in Super Bowl history.

Since the initial season in Nashville the Titans have not done quite as well. The team won the former AFC Central Division the next year but fell short of the Super Bowl; after the 2003 season the team advanced as far as the AFC Divisional Playoffs, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. 2005 was by far the team's worst season since its arrival in Tennessee and it finished with an overall record of 4-12. Adams was again criticized for his decision not to renew the contract of the team's president, returning to that role himself. Adams is said to have arranged his affairs in such a way as to ensure the team will remain in his family's possession after his death, which appears in no way to be imminent as he has the appearance of a man in remarkably good health for his advanced age.

The Nashville Kats (Arena Football)

In 2001, Adams purchased the rights to operate an Arena Football League franchise in Nashville for a reported $4,000,000. He found it impossible at first to negotiate a favorable lease for the use of the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now called Sommet Center) from that facility's primary tenant and operator, the Nashville Predators. A previous AFL team had been forced by financial losses to leave Nashville and move to Atlanta despite average attendance of over 10,000 per home game and blamed most of this on an unfavorable lease. Adams' bitter memories of being a secondary tenant at the Astrodome caused him to consider briefly either financing the renovation of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium for use as an indoor football venue, building an entirely new facility with a seating capacity of 12,000 or so (dropped when Adams was convinced that the potential $30,000,000 price tag for such a building he had apparently initially been quoted was wildly optimistic), or expanding the Titans' existing indoor practice facility (at "Baptist Sports Park", named for a local hospital) for use as an Arena venue. Negotiations dragged on, and the Arena Football League extended his option on the new Nashville franchise at least twice.

By 2004 Adams and the Predators finally hammered out a mutually-acceptable agreement and it was announced that the new Nashville Kats franchise would begin play in the 2005 Arena season. (The predecessor franchise also continues to operate as the Georgia Force; the current Kats franchise has now reclaimed the Nashville history of the earlier franchise as its own.) Late in 2004 it was announced that country singer Tim McGraw had bought into the Kats franchise as a minority owner.

In October 2007 Bud Adams announced that the Kats were ceasing operations.

Personal

Despite his unpopularity in Houston, Adams still lives there and only comes to Nashville for Titans events. He is married to his wife of 62 years, Nancy Neville Adams (who serves as vice chairwoman of the Titans board). His sister, Mary Louise Adams, who was close to Adams all of his life, had a short lived marriage with Larry Pickrell. Never satisfied with her decision, a fight errupted at the River Oaks Country Club between the two, ending with Pickrell punching Adams and himself being banned from the club. Pickrell and Adams' sister split after the incident. Bud Adams attends River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston. He has two living daughter's, Susan and Amy. Their son, Kenneth S. Adams III died in June of 1987 (at the age of 29) from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound. Bud is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

See also

• Other AFL Personalities

External links

• Adams' citation on the Remember the AFL
• Adam's Titans profile
• Kenneth S. Adams III