Howard Williams

Howard Williams was one of the owners of a Greensboro, NC, based ECHL franchise Greensboro Monarchs, which later on moved up to the AHL as the Carolina Monarchs.

By the mid-1990s the IHL had expanded the major cities and rivaled the AHL as the top North American league, second only to the NHL. Furthermore, some of the IHL teams signed players that had contract disputes with NHL teams. In the mid-1990s the AHL and ECHL to were in talks to form a league that would become the top North American minor league. However, these negotiations failed, which prompted the AHL to lure ECHL to join the AHL. In March 1995 the Greensboro Monarchs and the Charlotte Checkers filed applications to join the AHL. The Checkers removed its application shortly, which left the Monarchs as the only team to join the AHL.

The Monarchs operated only for two seasons in the AHL. The franchise was forced to relocate from Greensboro Coliseum when the Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina. The Monarchs franchise was first nominally leased to the Carolina Hurricanes, formerly the Whalers, and then to Paragon Sports Properties. The Monarchs were relocated to New Haven, CT, and became known as the Beast of New Haven. The agreement with the Hurricanes included an option to sell the franchise to the Hurricanes.

It was planned that the control of the franchise would return after two seasons, coinciding with the Hurricanes move from the Greensboro Coliseum to the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena. When the lease expired the Monarchs owners contemplated on selling the franchise to local investors. However, they ended up exercising the contract option that saw the Hurricanes buy the franchise.