Springfield Acorns
November 8, 2015
The Springfield Acorns were a short-lived pro football team in Western Massachusetts during the early 1960’s. The Acorns competed in the Atlantic Coast Football League, a minor league loop that featured teams from Maine to Georgia. The Acorns were notable for their quarterbacks. In 1963, rookie signal caller James Traficant took over the starting job at midseason. Another rookie, Dan Henning, replaced Traficant in 1964. Traficant went on to become a notorious U.S. Congressman from Ohio eventually felled by a federal prison sentence in 2002. Henning later served as an NFL head coach with the San Diego Chargers and Atlanta Falcons.
