The history of the Jacksonville Jaguars, an American football team in the National Football League (NFL), formally dates to November 30, 1993, when the NFL awarded Jacksonville, Florida the expansion franchise that became the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars, along with the Carolina Panthers, started play in the 1995 NFL season as expansion teams. Forerunners Attempts to bring professional football to Jacksonville dated as early as 1925; eventual Hall of Famer Ernie Nevers played his professional rookie season with a team in Jacksonville that year, before the team folded, unable to afford Nevers's salary. By the 1970s, leagues other than the NFL had begun placing franchises in the city; the Jacksonville Sharks and Jacksonville Express played in the World Football League, the Jacksonville Firebirds played in the American Football Association and the Jacksonville Bulls played in the United States Football League. In 1987, Jacksonville made an unsuccessful pitch to Bud Adams to relocate the Houston Oilers to Jacksonville; Adams ultimately received the stadium renovations for the Astrodome that he sought and kept the team in Houston roughly a decade longer before moving the team to Tennessee. Welcome to the NFL: 1991–1994 In 1989, the prospective ownership group Touchdown Jacksonville! was organized. The group initially included future Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Jacksonville developer Tom Petway, and came to be led by shoe magnate Wayne Weaver, founder of Nine West. In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams in 1994 (later delayed until 1995), its first expansion since the 1976 addition of the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Touchdown Jacksonville! announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists, along with Charlotte, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Memphis. Jacksonville was considered the least likely expansion candidate for several reasons. The Jacksonville metropolitan area and television market were smaller than those of nearly every team in the league. Jacksonville was the 54th largest television market, and only Green Bay had a smaller TV market (Jacksonville has since moved up to 42nd, trailed by New Orleans, Buffalo and Green Bay.) Although Jacksonville was the 15th largest city in the nation at the time by city proper population (It has since grown to become the 12th-largest), it has always been a medium-sized market because, as a consolidated city-county with Duval County, the city bounds already encompass most of the metropolitan area. There were 635,000