Houston Oilers

The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from their founding in 1960 to 1996. They began play as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) and won two AFL championships before joining the NFL in the AFL–NFL merger of the late 1960s.

The Oilers competed in the AFL's East division—along with the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, and Boston Patriots—until the merger, when they joined the newly formed AFC Central. The team played home games at Jeppesen Stadium and Rice Stadium during its first eight seasons, and thereafter at the Astrodome.

The Oilers were the first champions of the AFL, winning the 1960 and 1961 championships, but never won another. They appeared in the 1962 AFL Championship, losing in double overtime to their in-state rivals, the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs); the Oilers also won the AFL East division title in 1967 and qualified for the 1969 AFL playoffs, both times losing to the Oakland Raiders (which are now the Las Vegas Raiders). From 1978 to 1980, the Oilers, led by Bum Phillips and in the midst of the Luv Ya Blue campaign, appeared in and lost the 1978 and 1979 AFC Championship Games. They were a consistent playoff team from 1987 to 1993, an era that included both of the team's only division titles (1991 and 1993), as well as the dubious distinction of being on the losing end of the second largest comeback in NFL history. For the rest of the Oilers' time in Houston, they compiled losing seasons in almost every other year.

The Oilers' main colors were Columbia blue and white, with scarlet trim, while their logo was a simple derrick. Oilers' jerseys were always Columbia blue for home and white for away. The helmet color was Columbia blue with a white derrick from 1960 through 1965, silver with a Columbia blue derrick from 1966 through 1971, and Columbia blue with a white-and-scarlet derrick from 1972 through 1974, before changing to a white helmet with a Columbia blue derrick beginning in 1975 and lasting the remainder of the team's time in Houston.

The Oilers were owned by Bud Adams, who began threatening to move the team in the late 1980s, and finally did so after the 1996 season. He moved the team to Tennessee, where they played as the Tennessee Oilers in Memphis for the 1997 season, then in Nashville for the 1998 season. In 1999, to coincide with the opening of their new stadium, Adams changed the team's name to the Tennessee Titans and the color scheme from Columbia blue, scarlet, and white to Titans blue, navy, white, and silver with scarlet accents. The franchise retained the Houston Oilers' team history and records, while the team's name was retired by then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, thus preventing a future Houston National Football League (NFL) team from using the Oilers' name.

Later Houston-based football teams have paid homage to the Oilers. The Houston Roughnecks, an XFL team founded in 2020, shares their name with the Oilers' old mascot and used a logo that resembled the Oilers' until they changed it under pressure from the NFL. The University of Houston football team wore Oilers-style throwback uniforms during the Cougars' 2023 season opener against UTSA.