It was a special evening for Colin Chaulk inside Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum Saturday night. The longtime member of the minor league Komets was having his number retired by the franchise during a pre-game ceremony. But there was a slight issue before the banner featuring his No. 91 was raised to the arena rafters.

It was unveiled upside down.

Apparently, arena workers who prepared the banner were to blame, leading to an embarrassing few moments during the ceremony. But the most unbelievable part was that no one felt the need to stop and fix it. Instead, the banner went up, up and up upside down.

Really.

From the News Sentinel:

“This is he most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been a part of in 27 years with the club,” said General Manager David Franke. “I feel bad for Colin and his family and his friends. It’s uncalled for.”

The banner was fixed after the first period, but the Komets’ Twitter account didn’t forget as it directed its ire at the arena’s Twitter account.









According to Blake Sebring of the News Sentinel, the Komets drew their largest crowd of the season (9,515) for the special occasion as they honored a five-time champion and five-time MVP in the various leagues the franchise played in during his time there.

Chaulk laughed it off and gave a short speech to the crowd, who then went on to watch the Komets beat the Chaulk-coached Brampton Beast 4-3 in overtime.

Stick-tap Justin Cohn

UPDATE: Memorial Coliseum Executive VP and GM Randy Brown apologized on the arena’s behalf for the gaffe. Via Blake Sebring:

“On behalf of the Coliseum, we deeply regret the mistake that was made. It was an unfortunate mistake that the coliseum deeply apologizes to all Komets fans, the Franke family and Colin Chaulk and his family. We are embarrassed by the error and will do everything possible to ensure that it doesn’t happen again moving forward.”

– – – – – – –

Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY: