THE ROSTER
A Definitive Archive of Connecticut's Professional Athletes. One Story at a Time. Presented by MJS Creatives
The Premise
Connecticut is not a sports state by reputation.
Connecticut is a sports state by density.
Within this small, resilient stretch of New England, more than 150 professional athletes have been born, raised, developed, and launched into the highest levels of competition in the world. The NBA. The NFL. Major League Baseball. The NHL. Olympic podiums. Championship parades. Hall of Fame stages.
Their names live on scoreboards, stat sheets, record books, and barstool debates. But the places that shaped them—the hometowns, high school gyms, local fields, coaches, families, and early mornings that came before the spotlight—have never been documented in one unified place.
Until now.
The Roster™ is that place.
What We Are Doing
Between now and MJS Connecticut Pro Athletes Day—the first Friday in February—MJS Creatives will publish a complete, verified, story-first directory of every Connecticut-born athlete who reached the highest professional level of their sport.
Athletes will be presented in objective order, using career points in basketball, career Approximate Value in football, games played in hockey, and comparable performance metrics across other sports.
But the rankings are only the framework.
The heart of The Roster™ is the story.
Each athlete profile answers three questions:
- What did they achieve? The numbers—clean, verified, and without exaggeration.
- Where did they come from? The town, the people, and the places that shaped them.
- What connects them to Connecticut today? Because legacy is not only what you accomplished. It is also what you give back.
Why This Matters
Connecticut has long existed in the shadow of New York and Boston, with its athletes absorbed into larger markets, louder media cycles and broader regional narratives.
The Roster™ reclaims those stories.
This is not a nostalgia project. It is an archival intervention—a deliberate act of cultural recognition that says these athletes belong to Connecticut, and Connecticut remains part of their legacy.
Every child playing baseball in Norwich should know Rajai Davis came from the same city. Every young athlete in Willimantic should know he developed on those same local fields. Every student at New London High School or UConn Avery Point should understand that a 38th-round draft pick from Connecticut built a 14-year Major League career, stole 415 bases and delivered one of the most unforgettable home runs in World Series history.
You cannot become what you have never been shown.
The Roster™ makes Connecticut’s athletic legacy visible.
The Connection to MJS Connecticut Pro Athletes Day
This digital archive is the foundation. The proof of concept. The long game.
MJS Connecticut Pro Athletes Day (February — first Friday) is the annual celebration that brings this list to life — a statewide holiday where Connecticut stops to honor its pro athletes through traditions, games, and shared ritual.
But the holiday only has meaning if the history exists first.
The Roster is that history.
Week by week. Bio by bio. Hometown by hometown.
We are building the canon
How The Roster™ Tells the Story
This is not a press release.
It is not a sports blog.
It is not a ceremonial tribute written to satisfy a room.
The Roster™ is built on rigorous research, intelligent storytelling, and respect for the reader’s time. It assumes the audience understands sports without needing empty jargon. It assumes Connecticut pride does not require exaggeration. And it assumes the truth is powerful enough when it is documented clearly and told well.
We will not manufacture controversy. We will not invent rivalries. We will not flatten athletes into heroes, villains, or mythology.
We will examine the full record—the achievement, the context, the struggle, the contradiction, and the communities that shaped each career.
Every story will be treated with precision because every story contributes to the larger history of Connecticut athletics.
The Invitation
If you are from Connecticut — any town, any age, any sport — this is for you.
If you are a fan of the game, not just the glory — this is for you.
If you believe that where you come from shapes who you become — this is for you.
The Roster is live now.
Bookmark it. Share it. Argue with it.
And come back every week. Because we've got a lot of names to get through. And every single one of them left a piece of themselves on the court, the field, the ice, or the diamond — before they ever left Connecticut.
MJS Creatives
Archiving excellence. One hometown at a time.