Mad Anthonys charity honors Scott Sproat ’91

It’s a wardrobe upgrade Scott Sproat ’91 never saw coming.  And insists doesn’t belong to him.

On Friday, Sproat, executive vice-president and co-owner of the Fort Wayne Komets hockey team since 2001, will don one of the ceremonial Red Coats from the Mad Anthonys, a Fort Wayne charity organization that has been sponsoring a charity golf tournament and bestowing Red Coats on influential Hoosiers for 60 years. Sproat and the other Komets owners – Michael, David, Steven, William and Richard Franke – will be honored for the Komets’ long and influential presence in the city.

“We certainly love the honor and are certainly happy to accept it on behalf of everyone who makes Komet hockey what it is,” Sproat says.

The Frankes certainly have played a key role in that. When the previous owners moved the iconic franchise to Albany, N.Y., in the summer of 1990, the Frankes stepped in, purchasing the defunct Flint property and moving it to Fort Wayne to keep the Komets’ rich legacy alive. 

Sproat, a DeKalb High School graduate who earned a communications degree at Manchester, came aboard a decade later after helping make the Fort Wayne Fury of the Continental Basketball Association one of that league’s premier franchises.

But after former Detroit Pistons standout Isiah Thomas bought the league and then folded it less than two years later, Sproat moved on to the Komets.

“I pretty much came in as a VP and as a co-owner,” he said. “That was pretty much my deal. After the whole Isiah debacle I wasn’t about to ever just go work for somebody again in this business, because I had unfortunately lived through a scenario there where you had a successful franchise, and … because of decisions made by people who were out of my control or whatever you want to say, it was taken away from the community and everyone else.”

No such worries with the Komets, an ECHL team whose 66-year longevity as a minor league hockey franchise is exceeded only by the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League.

“We look at it as the Komets belong to Fort Wayne. We just happen to be the stewards of it right now,” Sproat says.

– Benjamin Smith

About Manchester University

Manchester University, with campuses in North Manchester and Fort Wayne, Ind., offers more than 60 areas of academic study to 1,600 students in undergraduate programs, a Master of Athletic Training, a Master of Pharmacogenomics and a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy. It has students from 20 nations and is home to the world's first undergraduate peace studies program, established in 1948.

June 21, 2017