Atlantic Coast Football League (1973)
Tombstone
Born: 1973 – ACFL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1973
First Game: September 1, 1973 (L 41-7 vs. New England Colonials)
Last Game: November 10, 1973 (L 37-7 @ Hartford Knights)
ACFL Championships: None
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ACFL Logo T-Shirt
The Atlantic Coast Football League of 1962 – 1973 was likely the closest pro football has ever come to having a true “triple-A” minor league, similar to baseball. At the league’s peak in the late 1960’s, NFL teams such as the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins maintained farm clubs in the ACFL.
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Background
The Western Massachusetts Pioneers football team was a minor league outfit based out of Holyoke, Massachusetts during the autumn of 1973. The Pioneers were an expansion team in the Atlantic Coast Football League that fall, playing against competition from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
On The Field
The Pioneers managed to win only one game in competition, a victory over the inept New York Crusaders, a team that lost all nine of its games and was shutout five times. The team picked up one additional win victory by virtue of a forfeit when their opponent went out of business before the end of the season. Their final record was 2-9.
Head Coach Fred Wallner was a native of kinda-nearby Greenfield, Massachusetts, 30 miles to the north. As a player, Wallner starred at Notre Dame and became a Pro Bowl lineman for the Chicago Cardinals during the early 1950’s.
A number of Pioneers players went on to play in the World Football League, a doomed mid-70’s rival to the NFL, and in the Canadian Football League. The Pioneers’ most accomplished alumnus was offensive guard Larry Butler. Butler went on to play in both the WFL and the CFL and was a perennial Canadian Football League All-Star with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the late 1970’s. During his final season in 1981, Butler was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.
The Pioneers folded after the 1973 season along with the rest of the Atlantic Coast Football League.
Pro sports returned to Holyoke’s Mackenzie Stadium in 1977 with the arrival of the Holyoke Millers minor league baseball team who played in town until 1982.
In Memoriam
Head Coach Fred Wallner passed away on November 4, 1999 at age 71. Hartford Courant obituary.
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