Voting Station

Bud Adams

Please vote to return to collections.

Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (January 3, 1923-October 21, 2013)
    Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
    Died in Houston, Texas
    Birth name was Kenneth Stanley Adams, Jr.
    Chairman and Chief Executive Officerc of Adams Resources & Energy Inc.
    Owner of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans (1960-2013)
    Also owned the ABA's Houston Mavericks (1967-69) and the Arena League's Nashville Kats (2005-07)

Why he might be annoying:

    He went by the nickname 'Bud', rather then his birth name.
    He made his decision to establish himself in the Houston area after his flight became stranded in the city due to fog.
    He attempted to purchase the Chicago Cardinals from the Bidwill family, with the intent to move them to Houston.
    His ABA venture in Houston was a failure after two seasons.
    He earned a reputation of being a cheapskate owner in the 1980's.
    He frequently complained about his Oilers franchise being a secondary tenant at the Astrodome.
    He threatened to move the Oilers to Jacksonville, Florida, if the city and county didn't concede to his requests to renovate the Astrodome (1987).
    He made a second threat a decade later to move the team to Nashville, if the city and county didn't finance a new stadium for the Oilers.
    When word of his second threat became public knowledge, many Oilers fans, media and corporate partners abandoned their support for the team altogether.
    The embarrassment prompted him to move his team two years earlier then expected.
    His decision to move to Tennessee looked worse, as the team was largely ignored in Memphis, which prompted them to relent and play at Nashville's Vanderbilt Stadium for the second year after the move.
    He was caught on camera flipping off the Buffalo Bills bench (November 15, 2009).
    His response to the fine was 'Oh, I knew I was going to get in trouble for that. I was just so happy we won.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a member of the Cherokee Nation.
    He served in the United States Navy, as a member of the Pacific Theatre Unit in World War II.
    He ran successful ventures in the oil industry, following his discharge from World War II.
    When he was turned down in his initial attempt to own an NFL franchise, he helped Lamar Hunt establish the American Football League.
    He oversaw his Oilers win the first two championships in AFL history.
    He ponied up and offered Billy Cannon a contract, which in turn made the AFL a legitimate threat to the NFL monopoly.
    Although he didn't have the same degree of visibility as Hunt did, he was credited with being one of the few AFL owners who was financially stable.
    He watched his team make their first appearance in the Super Bowl, the same year they rebranded from the Oilers to the Titans (1999).
    He was inducted into the American Football League Hall of Fame (2010).
    He trademarked the Oilers name and logos as a way to prevent any future Houston NFL franchise from using it.
    He was the first owner in NFL history to record 400 wins with one franchise.
    Although he took a lot of shit in Houston for moving the Oilers, his decision paved the way for a new football-only stadium to be built for the city's successor franchise.
    Unlike Robert Irsay and Art Modell in Baltimore and Cleveland respectively, he had enough guts to continue living in Houston, long after he moved the franchise out of town.

Credit: Ricky


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 114 Votes: 63.16% Annoying