The Rhode Island Steelers were a minor league

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team based in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls ...

. They began play in the

Atlantic Coast Football League The Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) was a professional american football minor league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league pai ...

in 1966 as a minor league affiliate of the NFL's

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

. Within weeks of the team's formation was announced, they selected former Pittsburgh Steelers/Dallas Cowboys running back

Ray Mathews Raymond Dyral Mathews (February 26, 1929 – December 20, 2015) was an American football halfback and end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for Clemson Universi ...

as head coach. The Steelers struggled both on and off the field. Early in the 1966 ACFL season the league provided financial assistance to the team to prevent them from leaving Pawtucket, where they never drew more than 3,000 fans for any home game. The team's final game was a 48-7 loss to the

Wilmington Clippers The Wilmington Clippers were a professional American football team that played from 1937 to 1942, and from 1946 to 1949. They were based in the American Association from 1939 to 1941, later returning for the 1946 to 1949 seasons. They were locat ...

on October 1 in front of just 591 spectators. The next week the team announced they were withdrawing from the ACFL due to financial difficulties, having lost five games and tied one.

Season-by-season

References

Atlantic Coast Football League teams Minor League Football Association teams American football teams in Rhode Island 1966 establishments in Rhode Island 1966 disestablishments in Rhode Island American football teams established in 1966 {{RhodeIsland-sport-team-stub

Season-by-season

Further reading

References