I got my first reef tank in 1987. Back then the coral available was really limited. SPS wasn't even a thing yet. Goniopora were only green balls. And true OG torch corals were green and for $70 you could buy a colony the size of 1/2 a football.
But the first things we got to grow were GSP and mushrooms. At some point the first zoanthids showed up and they were just mustard colored polyps (stalk, head, tentacles, mouth all a translucent yellow) and these would spread too.
The LPS that were available were Elegance, Fox Coral, Torch Coral (Wall), Hammer Corals (Wall). And the goal wasn't to grow them, the goal was just to keep them alive.
It was about 1994 when I saw the first Acropora start to show up in the aquarium trade. These were brown sticks. They shipped them to the US in plastic bags with the acros wrapped in wet newspaper - same way freshwater plants are shipped. Our lighting back then for reef keeping was yellow. We were using halides, but they weren't yet being made for the aquarium trade - they were made for street lights and warehouses. So the brown sticks were brightly lit brown sticks - with no longevity at all.
Dave B