Bud Adams Dies: Titans Owner One of Football's Longest-Standing

K.S. "Bud" Adams, the owner of the Tennessee Titans and former Houston Oilers, has died, according to media reports.

Adams and the Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson were the last surviving owners of the old American Football League, which merged with the National Football League in 1970, wrote the Sporting News.

The Houston Oilers won the AFL's first two AFL titles in 1960 and 1961. Adams moved the team to Nashville in 1997, with the team playing in Memphis' Liberty Bowl the first year as a new stadium was constructed.

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The move initially drew ire among longtime Oiler fans, which saw the team reach back-to-back American Football Conference title games in 1979 and 1980, losing both times to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Interestingly, Adams' passing comes three days after the death of O.A. "Bum" Phillips, the Houston coach during those AFC title appearances in what was known as the "Luv Ya Blue" era of the Oilers.

Phillips was the father of former Dallas Cowboys head coach and current Houston Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

Adams did reach the Super Bowl with the Tennessee Titans in 2000, losing to the St. Louis Rams 23-16.

Adams, an oil magnate joined, with Dallas millionaire late Lamar Hunt to help form the American Football League, according to the Houston Chronicle. Hunt was the owner of the Dallas Texans, which moved to Missouri to become the Kansas City Chiefs.

He was one of the early investors in the Houston Sports Association that brought the Colt .45s, the forerunner of the Houston Astros, to the city as its professional baseball team, stated the Houston Chronicle.

Adams, a World War II Navy veteran, grew up in Oklahoma and played college football at Kansas, according to NBC Sports.

"After the franchise achieved its 400th win at the end of the 2011 season, Adams liked to point out that he had more victories than any other current owner," said Michael Davis Smith, of NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk. "He also wasn’t shy about expressing his opinions about football matters, heaping praise on his team when it did well and openly criticizing coaches when the team wasn’t up to standards. He was even known to get into it with fans a time or two."

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