The Present State of Intercollegiate Athletics: the Wild West and How We Got Here

Richard Howell graduated from The Westminster Schools and then earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1970.  Subsequently, he earned his law degree at UGA in 1974 and practiced law in Atlanta with the firm of Swift Currie from 1974 through January 1985.  In February 1985, he started a sports management business in Atlanta as the President and CEO of Robinson-Humphrey Sports Enterprises.  As a lawyer/agent, Richard developed a sports management practice concentrating on representing individual professional athletes and collegiate coaches.  In terms of athletes, Howell concentrated on professional football and basketball as well as professional tennis players.

Howell has represented close to two dozen first round draft selections in the NFL and NBA.  In 1993, Howell represented the Most Valuable Player in the National Football League, Emmitt Smith, as well as three of the 24 NBA All-Stars who participated in the 1993-94 All-Star Game – as well as a Top 10 player in the world in professional tennis, Mikael Pernfors.  

In June of 1996, Howell took the sports management practice private as President and CEO of Richard Howell Sports Management, Inc.  He practiced in the sports management field full-time for over 30 years.  

Richard was the State high school Singles Champion for four consecutive years at Westminster and played collegiately at Princeton.  While at Princeton, he played anywhere from #1 to #3 singles on three championship varsity teams; and he came within 1 point of being undefeated in his Varsity singles career in Ivy League play.  He is married to Connie Wright Howell, and they have two sons, Rush (a partner at Kirland & Ellis in Chicago) and Wright (a teacher at Ben Franklin Academy in Atlanta).