The Houston Oilers competed in the AFL's East division—along with the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets and the Boston Patriots—until the merger, when they joined the newly formed AFC Central.

From 1978 to 1980, the Houston Oilers, led by Bum Phillips and in the midst of the Luv Ya Blue campaign, appeared in and lost the 1978 and 1979 AFC Championship Games.

The Houston Oilers' main colors were Columbia blue and white, with scarlet trim, while their logo was a simple derrick.

[2] The University of Houston football team wore Oilers-style throwback uniforms during the Cougars' 2023 season opener against UTSA.

They scored an important victory over the NFL when they signed LSU's Heisman Trophy winner, All-America running back Billy Cannon.

(In 2012, the retail outlet Old Navy earned infamy for selling a shirt that misidentified the 1961 AFL champions as the Houston Texans, which did not exist until 2002.

Dewveall that year caught the longest pass reception for a touchdown in professional American football history, 99 yards, from Jacky Lee, against the San Diego Chargers.

But by 1974, the Oilers led by Hall of Fame coach Sid Gillman brought the team back to respectability by reaching .500 at season's end.

The next year, Bum Phillips arrived and with talented stars like Elvin Bethea and Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, the Oilers had their first winning season of the decade going 10–4 but did not make the playoffs.

In spite of the lopsided defeat, the Oilers returned home to a packed Astrodome for a pep-rally uncommon in professional sports.

Beating the Broncos in the first home playoff game in Houston in over a decade, the Oilers' performance suffered with injuries to Campbell, quarterback Dan Pastorini and top receiver Ken Burrough.

They did manage to edge past the high-flying San Diego of Dan Fouts in the divisional round, partly thanks to the play of Vernon Perry (4 INTs and a blocked FG) as well as the outstanding line coached by Joe Bugel.

A controversial out-of-bounds call nullified a touchdown by wide receiver Mike Renfro resulting in a 27–13 victory for Pittsburgh.

Once again, after a tough loss, the Oilers returned to their then-adoring fans who packed the Astrodome for an impromptu pep-rally for the second year in a row.

Biles resigned in Week 6 and was succeeded by Chuck Studley, who served merely as an interim coach until Hugh Campbell was hired in the off-season.

In 1984, the Oilers won a bidding war for free-agent former CFL quarterback Warren Moon (who played for Campbell with the Edmonton Eskimos), but didn't return to the playoffs that year either, with two wins and fourteen losses.

Not willing to lose the Oilers, Harris County responded with $67 million in improvements to the Astrodome that included new AstroTurf, 10,000 additional seats and 65 luxury boxes.

Following this, Bud Adams made it clear he was not happy about the consistent playoff failure, and all but threatened that this would the team's final chance under their current core, and were they to fail he would begin to rebuild, no player safe whatsoever.

His idea called for a downtown domed stadium that could also be reconfigured to accommodate the NBA's Houston Rockets–similar to San Antonio's Alamodome.

[citation needed] Meanwhile, the team's radio network, which once stretched across the state of Texas, was reduced to flagship KTRH in Houston and a few affiliates in Tennessee.

The team's final game in Houston, against the Bengals on December 15, attracted just over 15,000 people—by at least one estimate, the smallest crowd in franchise history.

Adams, the city and the league were unwilling to see this continue for another season, so a deal was reached on May 8, 1997 to let the Oilers out of their lease a year early and move to Tennessee.