With inputs from the Associated Press

Floyd Resse, the general manager who helmed the Tennessee Titans to their Super Bowl appearance, died at the age of 73 on Saturday.

Reese had cancer and was with his family when he died at his Brentwood home just south of Nashville, his family informed, according to Associated Press inputs.

Reese spent 21 years with the Oilers-Titans as a coach and administrator, and he is the franchise’s all-time winningest general manager. This season, he is to be enshrined into the team’s Ring of Honor.

“He built a team that saw sustained success and helped guide our franchise in the toughest of times and the highest moments,” controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said, according to AP reports. “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.”

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He drafted a trio of Associated Press NFL Rookies of the Year starting with Eddie George in 1996, then Jevon Kearse in 1999 and Vince Young in 2006. He made Steve McNair, a co-NFL MVP in 2003, the No. 3 overall pick in his second draft as general manager of the then-Houston Oilers. Reese called McNair and George, the 14th pick overall in ’96, key building blocks.

“It was magic,” Reese said in 2019 before the franchise retired the numbers for both McNair and George. “So after we spent time with those guys, we said, ‘Hey, if we can build a team of these kind of guys we’re going to be OK.’ And, at least for a while, it worked out.”

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The Titans went 13-3 that season reaching the Super Bowl as a wild-card team.

Survivors include his wife, Sally, sons Jeremy and Sean and four grandchildren.