Former Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese, right, led the team’s transition from Houston to Memphis to Nashville and built the team that went to the Super Bowl in January 2000. He died last week at 73. Former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is at left.

-- Photo By Mark Humphrey | Ap

Quantifying the on-field impact that Floyd Reese had on the Tennessee Titans franchise is easy enough. With 111 victories in 13 seasons as the team’s general manager, and its only Super Bowl appearance to date, it is easy to see the contributions of Reese, who died last week at 73.

But numbers fail to measure the true impact Reese had in helping establish the NFL and pro football in Tennessee, not only as a winning product on the field but in how he approached his work and responsibilities in all aspects during those 13 years.

Sure, it took owner Bud Adams and then-Mayor Phil Bredesen agreeing to moving the then-Houston Oilers to Nashville and have a new stadium built for them.

But many forget the rocky start the franchise had in the early going. Crowds at their temporary home in Memphis were often dismal, and when fans did show up the majority were wearing the visiting teams’ colors, prompting Adams to abandon the Bluff City after the 1997 season and move to Vanderbilt until their new home stadium was ready in 1999.

I first met Floyd Reese before I actually started covering pro football. The team was getting ready for the 1997 in Memphis, and I was working at The Jackson Sun with no idea that covering the NFL and the Titans would be anywhere in my future.

Reese was in Jackson to speak to a civic club about the team’s impending arrival and doing his best to shake hands, kiss babies and find a way for the then-Oilers to carve out a niche in the vast shadow of the University of Tennessee.

Most NFL general managers wouldn’t travel two hours to speak to a Lions Club. But Reese did, and did it with a smile on his face and a story to tell. He, along with coach Jeff Fisher, who also did his share of early PR work, helped sell skeptical Tennesseans on the franchise that had arrived in town only after a relatively close vote on a property tax referendum passed in Davidson County.

A couple of months after my initial meeting with Reese at that luncheon, our paths crossed again – this time on a much more permanent basis. The Sun’s beat writer took a job in Florida a few weeks into the season, and I found myself in the Liberty Bowl press box covering the game. Mind you, my previous NFL experience had been limited to one preseason game in Memphis a couple of years before and watching from my couch Sunday afternoons.

To say I had a lot to learn about reporting on the NFL would be an understatement.

That’s where Reese reentered the picture. By the time I was covering the team for the Nashville City Paper in 2001, I had forged a good relationship with Reese, who treated me well. If he liked you, you could probably count on being called, “Bo,” as in “Hey, Bo” when he would see you around or talk to you on the phone.

He was always accommodating, helpful and patient when I had questions about things like the salary cap and roster decisions.

In short, he helped me go from a green reporter in over his head to NFL beat writer.

Sometimes, if you asked him the exact right question, you might even get a scoop. I remember one day just asking him out of the blue if he had signed any players.

This was in the days before information was completely strewn all over the internet or social media for fans to gobble up.

“We signed a guy named Kyle Vanden Bosch today,” Floyd replied.

My response was something like, “Hey, I didn’t know I was going to get a scoop today,” to which he said, “Hey, Bo, you asked the right question.”

That’s what I liked about him so much. Reese never treated me like I was from a much smaller paper. I was able to earn his trust, and he took time to answer my questions with the same thoughtful reaction he would if a bigger paper or ESPN came calling.

He was also someone who had seen a lot in his time as a player at UCLA, a coach in the college and pro ranks and, eventually, as a general manager.

He knew a wide range of people – Jerry Glanville in Houston, Bud Grant in Minnesota, Bill Belichick (whom he later worked for in New England) and Nick Saban (who was an assistant on the same staff in Houston), for example – and could tell entertaining stories about all.

The list went on to include actor Mark Harmon, who had been his quarterback when he was an assistant coach at UCLA.

And you can’t forget that Reese was also a player and coach at UCLA at the same time and crossed paths with legendary coach John Wooden.

Some of the best times regarding Reese would be at the start of practice while players were stretching and doing individual work. That’s when Reese would spend about 15 to 20 minutes each day talking to the writers and retelling stories of his experiences. It’s also where trust and friendships formed.

Comments on social media and from people who came in contact with Reese – both in the business and just in chance meetings – confirmed he was a down-to-earth soul who loved football, family and fellowship.

If you didn’t know what he did for a living, you’d never guess that a man so friendly and unassuming had risen so far in his profession.

Even after he left the Titans, Reese worked at ESPN as an analyst, performing well before securing a job with Belichick in the Patriots front office in 2009.

In a very direct way, Reese is still impacting the Titans’ organization, which he truly loved and honestly never wanted to leave.

While with the Patriots, working as Belichick’s right-hand man, a young scout from Union City who had admired Reese’s work with the Titans caught Reese’s attention. That man was current Titans general manager Jon Robinson.

It was Reese who was instrumental in helping Robinson get the job in Tennessee, calling his old boss Steve Underwood and telling him that Robinson was the man who could get the Titans back on track after failure had overrun the franchise nearly a decade ago.

“I learned a lot and I think to speak to the character of what Floyd means to me, when I was interviewing for the job to come to Tennessee, he picked up the phone and called Steve Underwood for me.

“The last time Steve Underwood had talked to Floyd Reese was when he let him go (in 2006). That’s the type of man that Floyd Reese was. He believed in me, in what we’re about,” Robinson says. “I can’t say enough good things about Floyd, and I’m deeply sorry for Mrs. Sally and her family.”

Same here, Jon. Same here.

Terry McCormick publishes TitanInsider.com and appears 2-4 p.m. weekdays on the George Plaster Show on WNSR-AM 560/95.9 FM.