Jacksonville Jaguars History

For decades, Jacksonville had earned a reputation of being a good football town, hospitable for both college and pro football. Every year the city hosts the Gator Bowl, an annual civic highlight traditionally accompanied by parties, ceremonies, parades and other events leading up to the game. The annual University of Georgia vs. University of Florida game is also played in Jacksonville.

The Gator Bowl stadium was built out of steel trusses during the Great Depression and was frequently built onto, with the final addition of the reinforced-concrete west upper deck coming in 1982. The stadium hosted short-lived teams in both the World Football League (Jacksonville Sharks/Express) and the United States Football League (Jacksonville Bulls) and the occasional NFL exhibition game. The city also hosted the American Football League All Star Game in 1967 and 1968. The city briefly attempted to lure the Baltimore Colts, whose owner Robert Irsay famously landed a helicopter in the stadium as thousands of Jacksonville citizens urged him to move the team there. City leaders also attempted to get the Houston Oilers to move to Jacksonville at one point in the late 1980s. Great efforts were made to lure the Oilers, including the creation of a "Jacksonville Oilers" banner and designation of a specific section of the Gator Bowl as a non-alcohol, family section for proposed home games.

In 1991, the NFL made a decision to expand the league by two teams, originally in time for the 1993 season. The league had not expanded since the 1976 season with the addition of Seattle and Tampa Bay and with the sport growing the NFL felt the time was right to add additional franchises. Five cities were ultimately chosen as finalists for the two new teams: Charlotte, North Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; and Jacksonville. From the beginning, Charlotte and St. Louis were considered the heavy favorites to win, with Baltimore also a strong possibility. Though not as strong a bid, Memphis was still considered an outside possibility, as the NFL did not have a presence in the area.

For many reasons, Jacksonville was considered the darkest horse in the field. First, Florida already had two NFL teams: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who played about a four-hour ride away, and the Miami Dolphins, who were already popular in Jacksonville and most of the state. Secondly, any expansion team would also have to compete with existing college football interests. And thirdly, the Jacksonville bid was mired in turmoil and conflict throughout the process. The ownership group formed even before the NFL announced its intentions to expand, in 1989. The group called itself Touchdown Jacksonville! and it placed its formal application with the NFL in 1991. The original ownership group had included future Governor Jeb Bush and Jacksonville developer and political kingmaker Tom Petway. It was in 1991 this group confidently announced that it would call its team the Jacksonville Jaguars. After some defections and mutinies, the group came to be led by the relatively deep pockets of J. Wayne Weaver, shoe magnate and founder of Nine West.

History

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