The Hartford Beauties were founded in 1977 as an expansion team in a minor league nobody remembers. They played out of a 4,200-seat barn called "The Icebox" in Hartford's South End, where the heating never worked and the Zamboni broke twice a season. They were terrible for three years, beloved for all of them.

The franchise was built on castoffs, misfits, and guys who were too tough, too weird, or too slow for the show but too good to quit. Coach Hank Murdoch once said, "We don't have a system. We have an attitude." The local paper called them "the most entertaining bad team in hockey." The fans didn't care about wins. They came for Knuckles dropping the gloves, Laser's impossible one-timers, and The Mosquito getting under everyone's skin.

They peaked in '83-'84, went on a miracle playoff run, and lost in the finals. Then folded in 1991 when the building failed inspection. Nobody who was there ever forgot them.