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}} Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was the owner of the Tennessee Titans, a National Football League franchise. He was instrumental in the founding and establishment of the former American Football League. Adams became a charter AFL owner with the establishment of the ''Titans'' franchise, which was originally known as the ''Houston Oilers''. He was the senior owner (by time) with his team in the National Football League, a few months ahead of Buffalo Bills' owner Ralph Wilson. Adams also was one of the owners of the Houston Mavericks of the American Basketball Association and the owner of the second Nashville Kats franchise of the Arena Football League. He was elected to the American Football League Hall of Fame, an online site, but as of 2013 is not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, despite several nominations and an ongoing effort to make him such. Adams had many business interests in the Houston area. An enrolled Cherokee who originally made his fortune in the petroleum business, Adams was chairman and CEO of Adams Resources & Energy Inc., a wholesale supplier of oil and natural gas. He also owned several Lincoln-Mercury automobile franchises. ==Early life== Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma on January 3, 1923, Adams was the son of K. S. "Boots" Adams and Blanch Keeler Adams. He became an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation by virtue of his maternal line. Two of his great-grandmothers were Cherokee women who married European-American men: Nelson Carr and George B. Keeler, who played roles in trade and oil in early Oklahoma. Keeler drilled the first commercial oil well, near the Caney River.〔("History Museum receives generous gift" ), ''Examiner-Enterprise'', 20 Nov 2004, accessed 21 Nov 2009〕 Adams' father succeeded the founder Frank Phillips as president of Phillips Petroleum Company in 1939.〔''Phillips: The First 66 Years'', Oklahoma: Phillips Petroleum Company, 1983〕 Adams' uncle William Wayne Keeler, CEO of Phillips Petroleum Company for years, was appointed chief of the Cherokee Nation by President Harry S. Truman in 1949 and served through 1971, when the Cherokee were able to hold their own elections. Keeler was democratically elected and served until 1975. Adams' ancestors include other prominent Cherokee leaders.〔 Adams graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1940 after lettering in three sports. After a brief stint at Menlo College, he transferred to the University of Kansas (KU), where he played briefly on the varsity football team as he completed an engineering degree. During World War II, Adams served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of operations, attaining the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. After the war, he returned to KU for additional studies and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Shortly after his 1946 discharge, Adams was on a trip in which his plane was fogbound in Houston, Texas. He liked the area and decided to settle there. Soon afterward, Adams launched a wildcatting firm, ADA Oil Company, that eventually grew into Adams Resources & Energy. The company's basketball team was an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) powerhouse, finishing third nationally in 1956. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bud Adams」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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