The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They currently belong to the Southern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Jaguars, along with the Carolina Panthers, joined the NFL as 1995 expansion teams.

For decades, Jacksonville had earned a reputation of being a good football town, hospitable for both college and pro football. Every year the city hosts the Gator Bowl, an annual civic highlight traditionally accompanied by parties, ceremonies, parades and other events leading up to the game. The annual University of Georgia vs. University of Florida game is also played in Jacksonville.

The Gator Bowl stadium was built out of steel trusses during the Great Depression and was continuously added to, with the final addition of the reinforced-concrete west upper deck coming in 1982. The stadium hosted short-lived teams in both the World Football League and the United States Football League and the occasional NFL exhibition game. The city briefly attempted to lure the Baltimore Colts, whose team owner Robert Irsay famously landed a helicopter in the stadium as thousands of Jacksonville citizens urged him to move the team there. City leaders also attempted to get the Houston Oilers to move to Jacksonville at one point in the late 1980's. Great efforts were made to lure the Oilers, including the creation of a "Jacksonville Oilers" banner and designation of a specific section of the Gator Bowl as a non-alcohol, family section for proposed home games. Though the efforts proved unsuccessful, it did serve as a launching pad for the city's attempt to gain an NFL expansion team.

In 1991, the NFL made a decision to expand the league by two teams, originally in time for the 1993 season. The league had not expanded since the 1976 season with the addition of Seattle and Tampa Bay and with the sport growing the NFL felt the time was right to add additional franchises. Five cities were ultimately chosen as finalists for the two new teams: Charlotte, NC; St. Louis, MO; Baltimore, MD; Memphis, TN; and Jacksonville, FL. From the beginning, Charlotte and St. Louis were considered the heavy favorites to win, with Baltimore also a strong possibility. Though not as strong a bid, Memphis was still considered an outside possibility, as the NFL did not have a presence in the area.

For many reasons, Jacksonville was considered the darkest horse in the field. In addition to the fact that Florida already had two teams (including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who played about a four-hour ride away), and that an expansion team would have to compete with existing college and pro football interests - the Jacksonville bid was mired in turmoil and conflict throughout the process. The ownership group formed even before the NFL announced its intentions to expand, in 1989. The group called itself Touchdown Jacksonville! and it placed its formal application with the NFL in 1991. The original ownership group had included future Governor Jeb Bush and Jacksonville developer and political kingmaker Tom Petway. It was in 1991 this group confidently announced that it would call its team the Jacksonville Jaguars. After some defections and mutinies, the group came to be led by the relatively deep pockets of J. Wayne Weaver, shoe magnate and founder of Nine West.

From the time Touchdown Jacksonville! came to being, they faced several challenges. In April 1993, the NFL indicated to Jacksonville officials that additional renovations to the Gator Bowl on top of what had already been committed would be needed. After several weeks of negotiations, and at least one breakdown, an agreement was reached that capped the city's liability for construction and was sent to the City Council for approval. However, on July 21, 1993, the Council failed to approve the financing package, dooming the bid. Deposits on season tickets were refunded, and Touchdown Jacksonville!'s offices were shuttered.

Largely due to being underwhelmed by the remaining suitors, the NFL and others encouraged Jacksonville interests to revisit the issue and resurrect their bid. About a month later negotiations between the city and Touchdown Jacksonville! resumed, and a slightly revised aid package was approved by a solid majority of the City Council. Officially back in the race, Jacksonville officials were energized, indicated by a drive to sell club seats that resulted in over 10,000 seats being sold in 10 days. The Jaguars also gained a high-profile investor when former NFL star player Deron Cherry signed on as a limited partner.

After Charlotte was granted the 29th franchise on November 1, the NFL announced they would name the 30th franchise on or before November 30, 1993. By this time, conventional wisdom was that St. Louis would get the 30th franchise. In fact, so sure were some in St. Louis that the franchise would be granted that T-shirts of the "St. Louis Stallions" (the proposed new team name) briefly went on sale at some St. Louis area sporting goods shops. However, it was not meant to be, as at 2:12 pm (EST) on the afternoon of November 30th, Jacksonville was announced as the winning franchise. The next evening, 25,000 fans celebrated at the Gator Bowl as season ticket sales were kicked off. Within ten days, the Florida Times Union (Jacksonville's daily newspaper) announced sales had passed the 55,000 seat mark. (Interestingly, St. Louis and Baltimore would gain relocated NFL franchises in 1995 and 1996, respectively.)

The picture in the papers the day after the NFL announcement was a triumphant and surprised Wayne Weaver holding up the Jaguars proposed silver helmet and teal jersey at the NFL owner's meeting in Chicago. The team's colors were revealed at this time, they were teal, gold, and silver with black accents. The jersey and helmet Weaver held up that day in Chicago stirred controversy, however. Both included the team's logo with a gold leaping jaguar. This caught the attention of Ford Motor Company, parent of the automaker Jaguar, in that the Jaguars' logo was almost an exact copy of the automaker's logo, which was also used as a hood ornament. Though no lawsuit was brought to trial, an amicable agreement was ultimately reached where Jaguar would be named the official car of the Jaguars, and the Jaguars would redesign their uniforms. The new uniforms featured an all-black helmet and a prominent Jaguars head with a teal tongue, as well as redesigned jerseys and pants (a prowling jaguar replaced the leaping jaguar on the sleeves.) Most people actually preferred the newer uniforms to the original design.

After the Gator Bowl on January 3, 1994, work commenced on renovations to the Gator Bowl, which would need to be completed prior to the start of the 1995 season. In fact, the renovation was essentially the construction of a new stadium, as the entire lower bowl was demolished and replaced with a reinforced concrete superstructure. The stadium would be completed on time and hosted its first preseason NFL game on August 18, 1995. (For 1994 and 1995, Georgia and Florida alternated home games in their series, resuming the neutral-site matchups in Jacksonville in 1996.)