Bridgeport (CT) Jets vs. New York Crusaders
October 26, 1973
Kennedy Stadium
Atlantic Coast Football League Programs
This colorful game program from the final season of the Atlantic Coast Football League (1962-1971, 1973) really represents the end of an era. The ACFL was the last of the old-school minor pro football leagues to die out. This was back when football had bush leagues that looked a bit like baseball’s minor league system: clubs set up shop in small cities, established a relationship with a Major League parent club (ideally), traveled primarily by bus and paid peanuts.
After the ACFL folded at the end of the 1973 season, subsequent attempts to start new football leagues – such as the World Football League (1974-1975) and the United States Football League (1983-1985) – attempted to compete with the NFL for talent and “Major League” status. Not until the launch of the NFL-sponsored World League of American Football (1991-1992) nearly two decades later was there a significant new attempt to create a developmental minor league for pro football. And the WLAF set up in big cities around the globe, with teams traveling by air from New York to London and Orlando to Barcelona.
This particular game pitted the Bridgeport Jets (1968-1971, 1973-1974) against the New York Crusaders (1973) at Kennedy Stadium in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Jets joined the ACFL in 1968 under the ownership of Bridgeport industrial baron Fiore Francis “Hi-Ho” D’Addario. (The “Hi-Ho” on the program cover alludes to D’Addario’s nickname). D’Addario had interests in construction, real estate and waste management and was an early hotel developer in Atlantic City once that city legalized gambling in the late 1970’s. In the 1980’s, D’Addario was also the primary sponsor of Connecticut’s famous Brakettes women’s softball team, who became known as the Hi-Ho Brakettes under his patronage.
At one time, Bridgeport had a working agreement with the New York Jets of the AFL, which is how the team came by its nickname, although whether this relationship was still in place by 1973 is unclear. By this time, the ACFL had already shut down once, after a 1971 season in which league membership dwindled to just four teams. The ACFL and the Jets took the 1972 season off.
Surprisingly, the league re-grouped to put on a 1973 schedule and D’Addario resuscitated his Jets club to take part.
During the 1973 regular season, the Jets were the best club in the six-team ACFL with an 11-1 record. This despite using a platoon system at quarterback, splitting calls between Frank DiMaggio (ex-Temple Univ.) and Jim Bulger out of Notre Dame. DiMaggio was the cousin of Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio. Bulger is the father of future St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger, born in 1977.
On November 24, 1973, the Jets hosted the final ACFL game at Kennedy Stadium. The Jets lost to the New England Colonials 41-17 in the ACFL championship game that night, before a crowd estimated at 10,000 fans by The Bridgeport Post.
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Following the demise of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1973, the Jets joined the obscure Seaboard Football League in 1974. Bridgeport appeared in the Seaboard Football League championship game in 1974, losing the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Bullets. The Jets folded for good, along with the rest of the Seaboard League, after the 1974 season.
D’Addario died in a small plane crash in Illinois in 1986 at age 63. He left behind an estate estimated to be worth $162 million. However, that estate has been under dispute in Connecticut’s probate courts for more than a quarter century now. The D’Addario case has attracted international media attention as an extreme example of probate court dysfunction.
5 Responses
In the early years, 1968-1970, the Jets and the ACFL had high-quality teams with many players who later starred in the NFL.
I remember John Dockery playing for Bridgeport and then, after the ACFL season ended, joining the Jets for their run to the Super Bowl.
The Hartford team was connected to the Packers and wore green and gold. They were always good with young players like Marv Hubbard (Raiders) and Bob Tucker (Giants).
Kennedy Stadium was usually filled (like the first two years of the Bluefish)and the crowds were enthusiastic, to say the least. Great memories.
I notice you have nothing on my Wilmington Comets or the 1965 NAFL. I have much – names, dates, programs, if you’re interested. Here’s a question for you: We flew to all our games in the deep south – out of Philadelphia, on a charter airline. They scheduled our games so that two teams flew together. In our case, we doubled up with the Pennsylvania Mustangs (Pittsburgh) which assured white-knuckle flights over the Alleghenies. So my question is what kind of multi-engine plane could handle all that weight? Whatever it was, worked for us, so other teams must have been doing the same, at least occasionally. This was around the time Wichita State U and Marshall U went down further west.
Jim, thank you for posting. I live in Mobile and am interested in information on the 1965 Tarpons and the NAFL. You may contact me at [email protected]. Thanks!
I remember WICC Radio 600 broadcast Bridgeport Jets games. I lived near Mt.Vernon NY and WICC would come very clearly. I remember listening to Bridgeport Jets game on a transistor radio while I was in the stands at Memorial Field watching the Westchester Crusaders.