NASHVILLE – Floyd Reese, the general manager who assembled the roster for the Tennessee Titans’ lone Super Bowl appearance, died Saturday. He was 73.
His family told the team of his death. Reese had cancer and was with his family when he died at his Brentwood home just south of Nashville, according to a social media post by ESPN 102.5 The Game, the radio station where Reese worked until mid-December.
Reese spent 21 years a coach and executive with the franchise, starting with the club when it was the Houston Oilers before making the move to Tennessee in 1997 and becoming the Titans in 1999. They qualified for the playoffs as a wild card that season with a 13-3 record, then advanced to Super Bowl XXIV in Atlanta before losing to the St. Louis Rams in a game that came down to the final play.
The team won 111 games, including five playoff victories, during Reese’s tenure as general manager from 1994 to 2006, and he remains the franchise’s wins leader among GMs. He is to be inducted into the Titans Ring of Honor this season.
“As general manager, he built a team that saw sustained success and helped guide our franchise in the toughest of times and the highest moments,” Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a post on the team’s website Saturday. “His keen eye for talent led him to some of the best players in our team’s history, which led the team to some of our greatest accomplishments.”