Houston Fans Rooting for Titans

Edward Gifford arrived during the oil boom of the 1970s, on the cusp of the Houston Oilers’ fabled “Luv Ya Blue” years.

He agonized through two fruitless AFC Championship games against the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers. Gifford also has endured the countless other indignities suffered by the franchise.

The crowning blow for most Houstonians came when owner Bud Adams uprooted the pioneer AFC club he founded in 1960 and headed for the hills of Tennessee. While the city sulked and has remained outwardly oblivious to its estranged team since the last game here in 1996, Gifford hit the road.

“I’ve been to every home game since they left,” the suburban Houston truck driver said. “I went to all the games in Memphis and all of them last season at Vanderbilt. Plus, I usually go to three to five on the road.”

Gifford, possibly one of the few Music City season ticketholders who knows Billy “White Shoes” Johnson from Billy Ray Cyrus, blames former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier for showing Adams the door.

Gifford sympathizes with Tennessee fans for their lack of enthusiasm before 1999. A Nashville team playing in rival Memphis in 1997 was doomed from the start, and he says the stadium at Vanderbilt “didn’t feel right” in 1998.

“The first game played in Adelphia Coliseum was very noisy,” Gifford said of this season’s home-opener. “I remember those days of Bum Phillips, and actually all season it has felt the same.”

Gifford’s undying loyalty, described in an essay, earned him a spot along 30 other fans from each NFL team at an exhibit in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. He beat out several entries from Tennessee.

“Football was very good to me. We came close to the big game, but just quite never made it,” his winning essay read. “But I still loved my Oilers, up or down.”