Sports Graveyard: Hartford Knights

Several months ago I shared the story of the Indianapolis Caps, a minor league football team that played in the old Continental Football League in the late 1960s.

This post concerns the Caps’ next home, the Atlantic Coast Football League, which operated from 1962 until 1973. The Caps moved to the ACFL for the 1970 season and folded operations after that year. Here we have a program from early in the year, between the Caps and the Hartford Knights.

1970 ACFL program: Hartford Knights vs. Indianapolis Caps

The Knights, who were by this time aligned with the AFL’s Buffalo Bills, were one of the ACFL’s stronger squads. They met the Caps for a Saturday night game at Dillon Stadium in Hartford on September 5, 1970.

I’ve been unable to track down the result of this game, but I think it’s enough to just enjoy this very neat program cover from a piece of football history that is long gone.

In any case, the Knights stayed in the ACFL until the league essentially folded after the 1971 season. They spent 1972 in the Seaboard Football League, where they logged a perfect season, but returned to the reformed ACFL in 1973. It turned out to be the last gasp for the league and the Knights, who could not compete with the newly formed World Football League.