Deja Vu All Over Again….

Bud Adams paid $25,000 for the Houston Oilers franchise in 1960. In spite of humble beginnings, they went "all the way".
Ed Rose remembers the last time Houston got a professional football team. The year was 1960, and Rose was a 22 year old truck driver working for the TG & Y Stores. "At first, nobody was too excited about it" he recalls, sitting behind a Corona at a neighborhood bar in the Heights. "Both papers (Chronic & Post) gave the impression the AFL was a minor league operation, before the first season - hell, Rice wouldn't even rent them the stadium, so they were playing at a high school field." When asked how the press reacted after the Houston Oilers became the champions of the new league, Rose remembers that "after that first year they were the talk of the town, everybody knew all their names."   
That first magical year, the Houston Oilers of the brand new AFL would outpass, outkick, outrun, and out defend every team in the league. The team, according to starting QB George Blanda, "could have beaten the NFL Champions that year, I wish we had got the chance". Blanda had retired from football after the 1958 season with the Chicago Bears and become a butcher. Owner Bud Adams told him that he would let George call his own game. Blanda responded with pro football's first fully balanced attack. In George's game, every eligible offensive player posed an equal threat to the defense. He spread the ball around to a trio of receivers and two running backs. None of the 5 had less than 600 yards. In one game, Blanda pitched to Dave Smith, who threw a TD to Bill Groman. A week later, he gave Groman the ball in a double-reverse, and Groman passed to Smith for a TD. Blanda led the AFL in passing, and ended up playing until he was 49 years old. He was later enshrined in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame on the first ballot. His best years were with Houston.
Houston became electrified by the Oilers during that October of 1960. They started the month with a ubiquitous 2-1 record. Houston residents could drive by and see the team practicing on a hardscrabble vacant lot near University of Houston. Spies from other teams ensconced themselves in nearby hotels and studied the team with binoculars. "At least somebody considers us to be a threat" an assistant coach said.
There was no security, no air conditioning, and by all accounts the team should have sucked. But they didn't suck - they kicked ass instead. After taking a week off, the Oilers played New York at dilapidated Jeppesen Stadium. They came from behind and beat the heavily favored New Yorkers 27-21. Only a true Texan knows how satisfying it is to knock off ANY team from New York. A crowd of 11,000 watched the game on wooden benches for about  $5 per ticket. A week later, on Sept 16, the Dallas Texans came to town. No need to explain the Dallas rivalry. This time 19,000 watched as Houston won 20-10. The following week they went to New York, where they destroyed the Titans 42-28. They never looked back, and on New Years Day they beat the Chargers 24-16 to become the AFL champs.
I hope the new Houston Texans will do as well during their first year, but most people kinda doubt it. The Texans got more impact players out of the expansion draft than could have been expected, including All-Pro left tackle Tony Boselli, Pro Bowl cornerback Aaron Glenn, a second solid offensive tackle in Ryan Young and two massive interior linemen with talent in Seth Payne and Gary Walker. Add to that the draft's No. 1 pick in quarterback David Carr and veteran linebackers Kailee Wong and James Sharper, and the Texans will win some games this fall that will surprise you. But, it would be unlikely for them to finish the year on top of the NFL.

OILERS FOUL-UPS & FOLLIES:

SHIRTS vs SKINS: Their first game ever, against the Dallas Texans, some 1960 version of a "crackhead"  broke into their crappy dressing room and stole most of the team's jerseys. They borrowed jerseys from the Dallas team, and wore them inside-out. They lost 27-10.
PAYDAY: A rookie, Charles Lockhart, who had been cut by the team pulled a pistol on GM Don Klosterman and demanded his pay for the rest of the month. A bystander wrestled the gun from him.
TRADED: The team traded a quarterback for himself, AND a first round draft pick. Yep, they sent Jacky Lee to Denver for a 1st round pick, and himself after 2 years of "seasoning" in Denver. Gotta be the strangest trade ever.
WEIRD: Oilers Head Coach Jerry Glanville used to leave tickets for dead celebrities such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.
TURNOVERS: The Oilers' first Coach, Lou Rymkus, won the championship. Therefore he was fired. This set the tone for Adams ownership of the team. Coaches would change often. Head Coach Pop Ivy came to work one day, and his secretary handed him his desk drawer. Bud Adams became the "Henry the Eighth of team owners" - until he met Bum Phillips. Phillips was an itinerant high school coach who fell into the job and tenaciously held on for years.
FINGER: In one of Don Meredith's early TV broadcasts, the Oakland Raiders were beating Houston  34-0 in the 3rd quarter. The fans left in droves. As the TV camera panned the empty stands, it focused on a solitary figure, who saluted a national TV audience with his middle finger. After a pause, Meredith explained: "He's telling us his team is still #1".
LOST HALL-OF-FAMERS: The Oilers traded their rights to draft Joe Namath for Jerry Rhome. Who? They could have had  tight end Mike Ditka, but opted for Willard Dewveall instead. They cut future Oakland cornerback Willie Brown. Steve Largent (all-time leading NFL receiver), was waived. Traded Charlie Joiner to the Bengals for no one important. Swapped Ken Houston to the Skins for no one who made a difference. They even got rid of Blanda, because he was too old. He played great for 9 more years. All are now in the Hall Of Fame.
FIGHTS: Owner Bud Adams got into a brawling fistfight with a Houston Post reporter who made fun of his outlandish cowboy outfit at a league meeting. Management followed up when GM Ladd Herzeg clocked Chronic. Reporter Fran Blinebury. Even the players got in on the fisticuffs, with QB Dan Pastorini roughing up a Post reporter on local TV. Herzeg also was arrested for "mooning" a wedding and punching the best man; and lost an unrelated paternity suit.
MOST SACKED QB: Oilers QB Pastorini set records each of his first three years. No quarterback was ever sacked more often. The entire offensive line was replaced each of those years. His ribs were broken a minimum of six times. A special "flak jacket" was constructed for him. He is lucky to be alive today.
THE BEST THING: The best news about the Oilers departure to Tennessee was that Houston sports fans no longer had to have their football hopes funneled through the miserly checkbook of the notoriously greedy Bud Adams. A few weeks ago he filed a suit against the City of Nashville, where the Titans play. The good people of Tennessee are beginning to see what cheap bastard Bud is really like. Expect a powerful rivalry with the Titans.