2002 and 2012

Komets Hockey Anniversary Patches

When plans were first announced for construction of the War Memorial Coliseum, Ernie Berg, one of the original owners of the International Hockey League Franchise, had a big plan to bring a minor league hockey team to Fort Wayne and fill the Coliseum with fans. He and Komets co-owner Harold Van Orman understood sports, having both been involved at the leadership level for the Fort Wayne Daisies, a team in the All-American Girls Baseball League. Berg's dream to bring hockey to Fort Wayne came true, almost from the dropping of the first puck in the 1952-1953 season. For that very first game, a crowd of 4,236 people turned out to cheer on the Fort Wayne Komets. Fans liked the hard-hitting Komets so much that they regularly filled the Coliseum on weekends and came close to filling it on weeknights. The Fort Wayne Komets Hockey Club is the second oldest minor league hockey franchise in North America and has one of the most loyal fan bases in all of minor league hockey, averaging over 7,500 fans per game.

These two patches celebrate respectively fifty and sixty years of Komets Hockey. In 2002, the play-ers wore this 50th anniversary patch. The patch is black with a big, white "50" above the familiar orange, black, and white Komets logo. In 2012, in addition to the 60th anniversary patch, this poster featured the likenesses of twenty-nine Komets "all-stars" from the past sixty years as well as many of the vintage jerseys.