The team relocated from Texas to Tennessee in 1997, and played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season. They moved to Nashville in 1998 and played in Vanderbilt Stadium. For those two years, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers, and changed its name to "Titans" in 1999. The team plays at LP Field in Nashville, which opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum. The Titans' training facility is at Saint Thomas Sports Park,[2] a 31-acre (13 ha) site at the MetroCenter complex, located just north of downtown Nashville, about 5 miles (8 km) from LP Field.
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 vs. 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 in daytime contests for a few
occasions in 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 is 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
would always wear the "Titans Blue" jersey in their 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 Philadelphia. 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 2007 against the Atlanta Falcons, the Titans paired the
navy blue jersey with the Titans blue pants for the first time, a game which
they won. They also did the navy blue jerseys with the light blue pants against
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they lost that game. 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, it was
announced that the "Titans Blue" jerseys would become the regular
home uniforms, with the navy being relegated to alternate status.
In 2009,
The NFL and Hall of Fame committee announced that the Tennessee
Titans and Buffalo Bills would kick-off the 2009 National
Football League 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.[4] In honor of
the AFL's 50th anniversary, the Titans wore Oilers uniforms for this game. Also
in 2009, the team honored former quarterbackSteve McNair by placing a
small, navy blue disc on the back of their helmets with a white number 9 inside
of it (9 was the number McNair wore during his time with the Oilers/Titans).
Between 2010
and 2012, the Titans did not wear an alternate jersey during any regular season
games, but in 2013 it has been announced that the navy jersey will feature in 2 home
games at LP Field.
