📍 Greensboro, North Carolina
🏒 Home of Greensboro Gargoyles

Greensboro has long carried the nickname of “Tournament Town” – and for good reason. The city has hosted more ACC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments than any other city; add in NCAA tournaments and college baseball championships, and it’s clear the Gate City has earned its reputation. At the heart of Greensboro’s sports scene is the First Horizon Coliseum, opened in 1959 and known for decades simply as the Greensboro Coliseum. But beyond the hoops and postseason duels that it’s hosted, the Coliseum also has a deep and colorful hockey history.

The locally-beloved arena – one of the nation’s largest – anchors a sprawling entertainment complex that includes an aquatic center, the ACC Hall of Champions and the Novant Health Fieldhouse, home to the Greensboro Swarm of the NBA G-League. Since 2009, the Coliseum has served as home court for the UNCG Spartans men’s basketball team as well. Hockey, however, has had its time in the limelight, first taking hold in the city with the ECHL’s Greensboro Monarchs in 1989. A few years later, the NHL’s Hartford Whalers, freshly relocated and newly christened as the Carolina Hurricanes, took to the ice at the Coliseum from 1997-99.

When the Hurricanes settled permanently in Raleigh, the Greensboro Generals – also an entry in the ECHL – carried the local hockey torch from until 2004. Then, the Coliseum would fall silent to the sound of skates for nearly two decades. In 2024, the ECHL announced their return to the city for the third time, this time in the form of the Greensboro Gargoyles, a proud affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Gargoyles’ arrival not only strengthened North Carolina’s identity as a hockey state – with one team in each of the three affiliated professional leagues, thanks to the Hurricanes, the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers and now the Gargoyles – but also cemented Greensboro as one of the few cities boasting three affiliated minor league teams. Alongside the Gargoyles, the city proudly supports the aforementioned Swarm and baseball’s Grasshoppers.

Still a fresh face in the league, the Gargoyles have made every attempt to create and uphold their own novel gameday traditions and fill fans with the spirit of the purple and gold. One way they’ve done this is through the “Bell Ringer”, a special individual or group that gets to strike a bell and signal the start of each home game with a resounding bang. And when the lights dim prior to puck drop, purple lights are often seen throughout the seating bowl. Purple, too, is the color of the period-ending lamp behind each goal, a trend-bucking twist on the typical green bulb.

While Greensboro will always embrace its role as Tournament Town, it has also evolved into a hub for minor league sports and a city with particularly unique hockey roots. The recent return of the game has reignited the passion of fans in the Triad and positioned the Gargoyles to hopefully thrive for generations to come.

Interview with Gargoyles’ Broadcaster Casey Ditzel