Sure was "back when".
Your garden variety Araya or Weinmann 27X1/14 alloys wheels on production bikes came from the factory built w/o washers, worked just fine.
Tubulars were always built w/ washers and we whole heartedly adopted the ferruled rims when Mavic introduced them and they spread through the industry. Same w/ hard anodizing, but a different deal.

-Bandera