Facts and information about the Tennessee Titans

• The Houston Oilers scored the first major coup of the AFL when they signed former LSU Tigers star and 1959 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon to a contract in 1960.

• The Oilers were the first ever AFL Champions when they defeated the San Diego Chargers in the championship game.

• Former Head Coach Jerry Glanville was notorious for leaving game tickets at the gate in the names of famous dead celebrities, usually Elvis Presley.

• Barry Switzer, the longtime Oklahoma Sooners head coach, said of running back Earl Campbell that he was the only player he’d ever seen in his life who could have made the jump from High School football to the NFL.

• In Earl Campbell’s rookie year (1978) with the Houston Oilers, he not only won Offensive Rookie-of-the-Year, but also Most Valuable Player of the NFL.

• Billy Cannon holds the distinction of making the AFL All-Star Team at two different positions (as a halfback in 1961 with the Oilers and as a tight end in 1969 with the Oakland Raiders).

• Longtime Oilers quarterback Warren Moon is the first quarterback to make it to the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame after not even being drafted out of college.

• In 1980, former Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini appeared nude in Playgirl.

• In 2007, Titans kicker Rob Bironas set the NFL record for most field goals kicked in a game with eight.

• Offensive lineman Bruce Matthews is the only player to play in the last game the Baltimore Colts would play in their home stadium, Memorial Stadium… as well as in the Baltimore Ravens’ last home game in Memorial Stadium.

• Running back Earl Campbell led the league in rushing in three consecutive years (1978, 79, & 80). Before him, only the legendary Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns accomplished that.

• As of 1981, only four people had been proclaimed as an official State Hero of Texas by the Texas Legislature: Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Earl Campbell.

• Longtime Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini’s real first name was “Dante”.

• Former Wide Receiver Ken Burrough was one of the few players to ever wear the number double zero on his jersey.

• The Houston Oilers appeared in the first three American Football League Championship games, winning the first two and losing the third.

• The Oilers were the first professional football team to play in a domed stadium (The Houston Astrodome).

• In 1992, the Oilers had a 32-point lead in the second half of a playoff game versus the Buffalo Bills and lost.

• Bum Phillips had never been a Head Coach in the NFL when the Oilers hired him to be both coach and General Manager in 1975.

• Former Head Coach Bum Phillips was known for wearing a cowboy hat while on the sidelines, however he never wore it in domed stadiums saying that; “My mama told me never to wear a hat indoors”.

• The Tennessee Titans were relocated to Tennessee from Houston, where they played as the Oilers, before the start of the 1997 season. During the 1997 and 1998 seasons they played as the Tennessee Oilers before changing their name to the Titans before the 1999 season.

• During the Titans first three seasons in Tennessee they played in three different home stadiums; Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Vanderbilt Stadium, and LP Field.

• Hall-of-Fame Offensive Lineman Bruce Matthews played his whole career for one organization, but under three different team names; the Houston Oilers, the Tennessee Oilers, and the Tennessee Titans.

• The Titans first year in Tennessee, they played in Memphis before relocating to Nashville for their second season.

• The Oilers came into the league as an original member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960, they were then part of the AFL-NFL merger of 1970.

• The Oilers played in the first three AFL Championship games, winning the first two, both times over the Chargers.

• When the Oilers lost the double overtime1962 AFL Championship Game to the Dallas Texans (later the Kansas City Chiefs), at the time it was the longest professional football game ever played.

• The Houston Oilers were the first AFL team to sign an active NFL player away from his team when they signed the Chicago Bears Wide Receiver Willard Dewveall in 1962.

• When the Oilers moved into the Astrodome in 1968 they became the first professional football team to play inside a domed stadium.

• Former Running Back Earl Campbell won both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in his first season in the NFL.

• Legendary Oiler Quarterback, and Hall-of-Famer, Warren Moon was told no NFL team would draft him to play Quarterback after he had graduated from the University of Washington. He went on to win multiple championships and MVP awards in the Canadian Football League before coming south and proving his doubters wrong.

• In 1996, the Oilers led the Bills in their wildcard playoff game by a score of 35-3 and ended up losing the game in overtime.

• Except for minor changes, the original 1960 Oilers logo remained the same until 1999 when the team name was changed to the Titans.

• Longtime Oilers/Titans Running Back Eddie George finished his career playing for the Dallas Cowboys.

• The first former Oiler to both make the Hall-of-Fame and have his jersey retired, and to have played with the team in Tennessee as well was Offensive Lineman Bruce Matthews.

• Billy Cannon made All-AFL as a Halfback in 1961 and then as a Tight End in 1969.

• In the playoffs following the 1999 season, Kevin Dyson caught the cross field lateral from Frank Wycheck and ran 75 yards for a touchdown in what became known as the Music City Miracle. Coincidentally, it was Dyson that was tackled one yard short of a Touchdown in that year’s Super Bowl. A Touchdown would’ve given the Titans the opportunity to tie the game or win it with a two-point-conversion.

• The Tennessee Titans share some team name history with the New York Jets. After moving from Houston to Tennessee, the Oilers changed their name to the Titans. In the old AFL days, before the merger with the NFL, the Jets original team name had been the New York Titans.

• Quarterback Archie Manning, father of Peyton and Eli, finished his career with the Houston Oilers after starring with the Saints.

• In 2003, Quarterback Steve McNair shared the league MVP award with Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning.

• The Houston Oilers had six Head Coaches in their first seven years in the league; Lou Rymkus (1960-61), Wally Lemm (1961), Pop Ivy (1962-1963), Sammy Baugh (1964), Hugh Taylor (1965), Wally Lemm (again, 1966-1970).

• In 1976, the Oilers used a fourth round draft pick on a Wide Receiver who they then almost cut before trading away before the season started. This Wide Receiver would go on to set many of the NFL’s career receiving records before retiring and being elected to the Hall-of-Fame and Congress. That Wide Receiver was the Seattle Seahawks’ Steve Largent.

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