Category: Atlantic Coast Football League

Western Massachusetts Pioneers (1973)

October 25, 2020

The Western Massachusetts Pioneers football team was a minor league outfit based out of Holyoke, Massachusetts during the autumn of 1973. The team was an expansion franchise in the Atlantic Coast Football League that fall, playing against competition from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The Pioneers won only one game on the field (picking up a second win via forfeit) and the disbanded along with the rest of the ACFL after the 1973 season.

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New England Colonials Atlantic Coast Football League

New England Colonials

March 12, 2020

The New England Colonials entered the Atlantic Coast Football League for the minor league circuit’s final season of 1973. The Colonials shared Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts with the New England Patriots and had strong ties to the NFL club. The expansion club won the ACFL title in their debut season of 1973, but the league folded not long afterwards.

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Long Island Bulls Atlantic Coast Football League

Long Island Bulls

March 5, 2020

The Long Island Bulls were a minor league football outfit that played two seasons at Hofstra University in 1969 and 1970. The Bulls were part of the burgeoning sports empire of Roy Boe, who also owned the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association and would later secure the New York Islanders NHL expansion franchise for Long Island in 1971.

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Boston Sweepers Atlantic Coast Football League

Boston Sweepers

September 17, 2019

The Boston Sweepers were a semi-pro football outfit that drew crowds of a few thousand per game on the northern outskirts of Boston during the early 1960’s. The team formed in 1962 as a new entry in the New England Football League. Press accounts alternately referred to the team as the Boston Sweepers, Chelsea-Everett Sweepers and Nu-Way Sweepers that fall. The Sweepers won the championship of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1964 and then moved away to New Bedford, Massachusetts the following season.

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1969 Harrisburg Capitols program from the Atlantic Coast FootbalL League

Harrisburg Capitols

December 2, 2017

The Harrisburg Capitols were a minor league football outfit in Pennsylvania’s capital city during the mid/late 1960’s. The Capitols were members of the Atlantic Coast Football League. The ACFL was a bus league with clubs clustered in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. From 1966 to 1969 Harrisburg served as a farm club for the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and the team went by the name “Capitol-Colts” during the 1968 and 1969 seasons.

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