Atlantic Coast Football League (1968-1971)
Seaboard Football League (1972)
Atlantic Coast Football League (1973)
Tombstone
Born: 1968 – ACFL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1973
First Game: September 7, 1968 (W 13-7 vs. Pottstown Firebirds)
Last Game: November 16, 1973 (L 30-14 @ New England Colonials)
ACFL Champions: 1968
Stadium
Dillon Stadium
Opened: 1935
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Pete Savin & Herb Savin
AFL Affiliation: Buffalo Bills
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Connecticut Gridiron
Football Minor Leaguers of the 1960s and 1970s
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.
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.
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Background
Back in the 1960’s, you could head east from the Ohio Valley mining towns to the port cities of the Eastern seaboard and, if it was an autumn Saturday night and you had nothing else to do, you might stumble upon a professional football game at the local Depression-era municipal stadium. It was good football too. The minor bus leagues of the 1960’s produced some terrific players who went on to All-Pro careers in the NFL during the 1970s, players like Coy Bacon, Marv Hubbard, Otis Sistrunk, Bob Tucker and Jeff Van Note.
The Knights replaced the defunct Hartford Charter Oaks minor league football team on the local sports scene after the Oaks folded in early 1968. Like the Oaks before them, the Knights played out of 10,000-seat Dillon Stadium. The Knights quickly established themselves as one of the finest minor league football squads of the 1960’s. The team formed a loose working agreement with the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League and won the championship of the Atlantic Coast Football League in their 1968 expansion season. The Knights went on to appear in five straight minor league title games.
1968 Championship Season
Head coach Fred Wallner put together an outstanding expansion squad in 1968. The team marauded through the ACFL regular season with an 11-1 won/lost ledger that autumn.
The Knights offense was powered by the running tandem of halfback Mel Meeks and bruising fullback Marv Hubbard. Meeks was a holdover from the old Hartford Charter Oaks (1964-1967). He never played college football and began his minor league career at the late age of 25. Nevertheless, Meeks set the ACFL single season record for rushing yards in 1964 (1,460) and would eventually become the league’s all-time ground yardage leader.
The Oakland Raiders selected Marv Hubbard out of Colgate with an 11th round pick in the 1968 AFL draft. Hubbard landed in Hartford after the Raiders cut him in training camp. Despite sharing time with Meeks, he led the ACFL in rushing in 1968. (Meeks would finish second). After the season, Oakland re-signed Hubbard. He would earn 3 NFL Pro Bowl selections with Oakland and was part of the Raiders’ Super Bowl XI championship team.
The Knights faced the two-time defending ACFL champs, the Virginia Sailors, in the title game at Dillon Stadium on November 30, 1968. Fred Wallner elected to give quarterback Dick Faucette his first pro start in place of usual starter Manch Wheeler. But the game plan didn’t ask much of the rookie. Faucette attempted just nine passes, completing three. Meeks (184 yards, 1 TD) and Hubbard (71 yards, 1 TD) ground out 255 yards on 42 carries. A 4th quarter defensive touchdown by Knights defensive end Gene Jackson sealed Hartford’s 30-17 victory.
Rivalry with Pottstown
By November 1969 the Knights had won 22 of 23 ACFL contests dating to their 1968 debut and were riding a 20-game winning streak. Hartford was 10-0 with two games left to go in the 1969 season. The Bridgeport Jets shocked the Knights 33-21 to end the streak and the bid for a perfect season. The following week was even more shocking: a 48-14 evisceration at the hands of the Pottstown (PA) Firebirds on the road that dropped the Knights record to 10-2.
The Knights and Pottstown would rematch one week later in Hartford for the 1969 ACFL championship game. It didn’t go any better for Hartford the second time around. The stifling Pottstown defense held the Knights to just 33 yards of total offense as the Firebirds dominated the Knights 20-0 before an estimated crowd of 8,700 at Dillon Stadium.
Hartford and Pottstown rematched in the 1970 ACFL title game. The rematch was played in a driving snowstorm at Dillon Stadium before 8,000 fans. The Firebirds came into the game without star quarterback King Corcoran, but his back-up Jim Haynie torched the Knights for 352 yards in a 31-0 rout.
The one-sided rivalry ended when the Pottstown Firebirds went out of business after the 1970 season.
The Knights lost the 1971 ACFL title game to the Norfolk (VA) Neptunes 24-13.
Decline & Demise
The Atlantic Coast Football League shut down following the 1971 season. Minor league football, in general, was in decline across the country. The Continental Football League, larger and more ambitious than the ACFL, folded in 1970. With the ACFL gone, the Knights migrated to the semi-pro Seaboard Football League in 1972. The level of competition was inferior and Hartford went 17-0, with many of the victories lopsided. Attendance dwindled at Dillon Stadium.
The ACFL re-formed in 1973 with just a handful of teams. The Knights finished a respectable 8-4 in 1973 but for the first time in six seasons of existence, did not play for the league championship. Attendance remained grim. Long-time owners Pete and Herb Savin folded the Knights at the end of the season. The ACFL also called it quits and disbanded.
Hartford Knights Shop
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by Bob Gill with Tod Maher & Steve Brainerd
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In Memoriam
Fullback Marv Hubbard (Knights ’68) died on May 4, 2015 of prostate cancer. The three-time NFL Pro Bowler was 68. New York Times obituary.
Head Nick Cutro (Knights ’72-’73) passed away at age 80 on November 3, 2016. Glens Falls Post-Star obituary.
Quarterback Manch Wheeler (Knights ’68) died of cancer at age 79 on August 11, 2018. CentralMaine.com obituary.
Downloads
8-16-1969 Knights vs. Quincy Giants Roster
8-16-1969 Hartford Knights vs. Quincy Giants Roster
9-29-1973 Knights vs. Long Island Chiefs Roster
Links
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8 Responses
I’ve never really understood why football doesn’t have a minor league. Players sit idle until they get a call to replace an injured NFLer. Is the sport simply too expensive?
A little trivia about Benjy Dial: he played in exactly one NFL game with the Philadelphia Eagles. It was in 1967, against the Falcons, and he went 1-for-3 for 5 yards. I believe that the card shown in your article (a 1971 O-Pee-Chee) is Dial’s only card, and the card company misspelled his first name.
I was a qb on the Pottstown Firebirds 1968- 1970. I remember those games against Hartford-particularly the 1970 game which we played in a blizzard. The ACFL was a great league with many talented football players who were only a break here or there from making the NFL. The reason why a league like the ACFL doesn’t exist anymore is strictly about money and the fact that as commodities, there are always bodies available!
Some of the taxi team players joined the ACFL Team for Saturday night games, but they could not crack the the tteams starting line up.
My Pottstown teammates were the best #78
Kurt Warner, Fred Jackson, Warren moon, Doug Flutie and many MANY more players who toiled in a lower league (Arena, Nfleuropa, CFL) are proof there’s too much talent that needs a lucky break. A minor league farm system would make it a lot easier to find these diamonds in the rough
Does anyone have any information on Mel Meeks?? Is he still alive? Did he play anywhere after the possible shot with the Minnesota Vikings? How did a guy with this talent go without a true shot in the NFL.
Hope this helps on Mel Meeks. Could not find if he is still alive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Meeks
https://www.profootballarchives.com/transactions/m/meek00970.html