In 1960, the Houston Oilers began play as a charter member of the American Football League, and arranged to lease the stadium from HISD as their home stadium. The team was owned by Bud Adams, a wealthy Houston oilman who upgraded Jeppesen Stadium for professional football use. Part of Adams' upgrades were expanding the seating capacity to 36,000. This allowed for the largest attendance for the stadium ever of 37,981 when the Dallas Texans competed against the Oilers on December 23, 1962 for that year's AFL title game. At this time HISD continued its use of the stadium with an average of ten games per week. Making national headlines, the NAACP protested HISD's segregation policy in 1961, and formally asked players from the Oakland Raiders to refuse to play the Houston Oilers at Jeppesen Stadium in a regular-season game. The Oilers remained at Jeppesen until 1964, when they moved into Rice Stadium.