Full Description
This narrative history of minor league football teams in Connecticut in the 1960s and 1970s is based on extensive newspaper and periodical research and interviews with nearly 70 former players, broadcasters and journalists. Only a few players--like Marv Hubbard, Lou Piccone and Bob Tucker--made it to the NFL, but many more played for as little as $25 per game in their quest to make it big or just have fun. Wealthy men like Pete Savin and Frank D'Addario owned teams in Hartford and Bridgeport.
In the days before cable television saturated the media with live sports, small town fans turned out to support their local heroes, often men who worked on construction crews during the week and stopped by the diner Sunday morning to talk football. Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, these men share their stories of a simpler era; the good times, like the Hartford Knights' 1968 ACFL championship season, and the long bus rides and missed paydays that were as much a part of minor league ball as first downs and interceptions.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Twenty-First Century 1
1. A Minor League Town 13
2. One Big Step from the NFL 19
3. That's What They Do in the Fall 24
4. A Football Crazed Town: The 1962-63 Ansonia Black Knights 38
5. The 1962 Stamford Golden Bears 62
6. A Hopeful Beginning and a Rude Awakening: The 1964-65 Hartford Charter Oaks 70
7. It's Hard to Be a Major League: The 1966-67 Hartford Charter Oaks 97
8. Two Steps from the Major Leagues: The Meriden Shamrocks and New Britain Bees 116
9. An Unhappy Relationship: The 1966-67 Waterbury Orbits 138
10. A New Team in Hartford 161
11. The Championship Team: The Right Place at the Right Time 179
12. The Championship Season: The 1968 Hartford Knights 201
13. The 1969 Hartford Knights 224
14. The Snow Bowl: The 1970 Hartford Knights 239
15. Hi Ho, Hi Ho, to Bridgeport We Go: The 1968-70 Bridgeport Jets 260
16. A Four-Team ACFL: The 1971 Hartford Knights and Bridgeport Jets 287
17. A Perfect Season in an Imperfect League: The 1972 Hartford Knights 302
18. Back in the ACFL: The 1973 Hartford Knights and Bridgeport Jets 320
Epilogue 335
Appendix: Scores and Records by Season 351
Chapter Notes 359
Bibliography 365
Index 367
