HOUSTON -- A not-too-well-kept secret was revealed Wednesday when Houston owner Bob McNair announced the nickname of the NFL's 32nd franchise will be the Texans.
|  | | Team owner Bob McNair shows off the Texans' new duds. |
The name won out over the Stallions and Apollos.
"Are you ready for some football?" McNair shouted to a downtown crowd estimated at 16,000 which turned out to learn the team's name, logo and colors.
The colors for the team that will begin play in 2002 will be
battle red, steel blue and liberty white with a bull's head logo
that includes a Texas Lone Star on one side.
"We're so excited about the return of the NFL to Houston,"
McNair said. "We don't want to be stereotyped as cowboys. We are
proud of our past but we don't want to be bound by it."
Looking out over a stretch of downtown Texas Avenue that was
turned into a football field, complete with goal posts, NFL
commissioner Paul Tagliabue revealed the team name and logo on a
large screen.
"With teamwork you can achieve the impossible," Tagliabue
said. "Not many years ago, you thought, 'it's not going to happen,'
but it did happen and you can be proud of yourselves. You made it
happen."
McNair paid $700 million for the franchise in a lengthy battle
with Los Angeles, a favored place for the NFL because of the size
of its media market. But Los Angeles never presented a unified plan
and McNair won the team.
|
Web site ordered closed
|
|
HOUSTON -- A Web site the Security and Exchange Commission
claims was purposely designed to mislead investors by offering fake
shares of the new Houston Texans NFL franchise has been ordered
closed by a federal judge.
The SEC said the Web page failed to
disclose that its owner, Edgar A. Guilbeau, and his company,
Houston Texans NFL Football Team Holding Co., are not affiliated
with the NFL or the new Houston franchise, the Houston Chronicle
reported in Thursday's editions.
The SEC said Guilbeau's site also did not disclose that the
stock offering is not registered with the SEC and created the
illusion that Guilbeau's company was prosperous by listing a
prosperous Houston address.
The FBI on Wednesday issued a search warrant for Guilbeau's
Houston residence. FBI spokesman Bob Doguim told the Chronicle that
details of the search were not released because it was a sealed
affidavit.
The Web site promised investors all the rights and privileges of
a common stock shareholder, including receiving declared dividends
and free or discounted promotional merchandise.
It required a $4,900 minimum stock investment but did not offer
a prospectus on the company or list a broker handling the sale.
Investors were told to send their Social Security numbers to a
company secretary who would "initiate and process all
administrative and necessary transactions upon receipt of
payment."
The SEC learned of the site from Suzie Thomas, general counsel
for the authentic Houston Texans football franchise.
"We registered 40 domain names," she said. "We just didn't do
-nfl. When we saw the Internet site, we were immediately very
concerned about this wrong effort to capitalize on the Houston
team."
|
The crowd that showed up on a steamy afternoon reacted
positively to the new name. Several spectators grabbed their cell
phones to spread the word. "Yeah, it's the Texans," one man
shouted into his phone.
Another fan, Chris Lockeridge, beamed beneath his hard hat which
bore a sign with the year 2002 and a question mark attached.
"I rooted for the Oilers and now I'll be rooting for the Texans," Lockeridge said. "It doesn't matter what they're called. I'll root for them."
The team labeled the day "The Big Return," with the Texans
replacing the Houston Oilers, who left for Tennessee after the 1996
season.
"We've developed a name and logo that fans throughout the area
and around the country and world will embrace for years to come,"
McNair said. "It is a logo worthy of the name and the brand of
football I expect our team to play.
"The name and logo embody the pride, strength, independence,
courage and achievement that make the people of Houston and our
area special."
Earlier, former NFL kicker Raul Allegre staged a kickoff in the Astrodome to former players from Texas Southern, the University of Houston and Rice University to symbolically get the day of celebration started.
McNair said the footballs would be delivered to the mayors in
Austin, San Antonio and Beaumont as part of the nickname
announcement in those cities. Presentations to other cities were
planned for Thursday.
A 69,500-seat retractable roof stadium is under construction adjacent to the Astrodome that will house the new NFL team and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo beginning in 2002.
McNair has even bigger plans for his new stadium. He is
preparing a presentation to the NFL and expects not only to get the
2004 Super Bowl in Houston, but to become a part of the Super Bowl
rotation.
Several former Oilers and former coach Bum Phillips were present
at the ceremony.
University of Texas fans, noting the similarity of the Texans' bull logo and their own Longhorns mascot, immediately started waving their "Hook 'em horns" hand signal, including Lockeridge.
"We'll just have to shorten it a bit for the Texans, " he said.
| |
VIDEO
  Houston celebrates their new NFL franchise RealVideo: 28.8 ESPN's Mark Malone talks with Houston Texans' owner Bob McNair on NFL 2Night. RealVideo: 28.8  Owner Bob McNair unveils Houston's newest team and its logo. wav: 557 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Houston owner Bob McNair explains how they decided on the "Texans" name. wav: 173 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 |
