nneth “Bud” Adams, Jr., the billionaire owner of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, has died at the age of 90. The team announced that he ”passed away peacefully from natural causes.”
Adams was a founding owner of the American Football League in 1960, bringing professional football to Houston with a $25,000 purchase of the Oilers. In 1997, after a stadium dispute, he moved the team to Nashville and gave them a new name.
The Titans appreciated in value to $1.055 billion in 2013. Adams also had other assets including oil and real estate investments, as well as a prodigious collection of Western and Native American art and artifacts. FORBES estimated his total net worth at $1.25 billion in September.
Even at 90, Adams was committed to putting a winning team on the field. Back in May, he told The Tennessean: “We may have to pay some more money, but I’m in. I’m ready to go with it… I may have a heart attack if we don’t. I just had my 90th birthday and somebody asked me, ‘Adams, how long are you going to stay at this thing?’ I said ‘I’ve made it 90, so I might as well go to 100.’ And I’d like to get in the playoffs and see some winning football over that stretch, too.”
“Bud saw the potential of pro football and brought the game to new cities and new heights of popularity, first in Houston and then in Nashville. He was an brilliant entrepreneur with a terrific sense of humor that helped lighten many a tense meeting,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
Adams and his wife Nancy, whom he met when he played football for the University of Kansas, were married for 62 years before she passed away in 2009. While at KU, he joined the Navy reserves and was called up to active duty in 1943. Adams was sent overseas, where he served as an aviation engineering officer on a PAC-Fleet carrier unit. Returning to the U.S. in 1945, he served as an aide in the U.S. Navy’s Congressional Liaison Office prior to his discharge in 1946. After moving to Houston, Adams (whose father was a prominent oil executive) founded ADA Oil Company. He later renamed it Adams Resources & Energy and took it public in 1974.
Adams had two daughters and one son (who passed away), as well as seven grandchildren. In a 2008 interview with The USA Today, he said the Titans ownership would be split in thirds between his two daughters and the family of his deceased son. At the time, grandson Kenneth Adams IV was being groomed to eventually run the team. He currently serves as Administrative Assistant to Senior Executive Vice President, General Counsel.

Source: Wikipedia.org