Hartford (ACFL)

The Atlantic Coast Football League had two teams based in Hartford, Connecticut between 1963 and 1973: the Hartford Charter Oaks, which played from 1963 and 1967 (playing in the Continental Football League between 1965 and 1967), and the Hartford Knights, which were founded immediately after the Charter Oaks were discontinued and played from 1968 to 1973.

As the Charter Oaks, the team was founded in 1963. It was named after the Charter Oak, the legendary (but long-dead) oak tree that purportedly was used to hide the charter for the Connecticut Colony. After two seasons, the Oaks (along with several other ACFL teams) jumped to the Continental Football League and played three years. In the Continental league, the Oaks wore plain white helmets (a common feature of the league's teams), with red also being a part of the team's color scheme. The Oaks registered records of 2-12 in 1965, 6-8 in 1966 and 5-7 in 1967.

The Charter Oaks ceased to exist two weeks before the end of the 1967 season, partially due to several teams folding either before or during the season. However, almost immediately, the ACFL placed a new team in Hartford, the Knights. Whether or not the two teams were the same is unclear; however, the Knights had a significantly different color scheme than the Oaks, with the team's helmets being colored gold and a coat of arms as the team's logo. In 1968, the Knights were the farm team for the Buffalo Bills. Between 1968 and 1971, Hartford appeared in every one of the ACFL's championship games, winning one (the 1968 match, 30-17 over the Virginia Sailors) and losing the other three (20-0 to the Pottstown Firebirds in 1969, 31-0 to the same team in 1970, and 24-13 to the Norfolk Neptunes in 1971).

When the ACFL suspended operations in 1972, Hartford continued play as a member of the Seaboard Football League, a semi-pro outfit that included, among other teams, the Long Island Chiefs and the Chambersburg Cardinals. Hartford earned a perfect season in that league, winning 17 consecutive games that season. It was only one of two of the ACFL's 1971 teams (the other being the Bridgeport Jets) to return to play in 1973 (though, for the first time, they did not participate in the championship game); the Chiefs came to the ACFL as well.

Among the Knights' most notable players was future Pro Bowl fullback Marvin Hubbard, who played for the Knights in their 1968 championship season, and signed with the Oakland Raiders the next year.