Turkey Cup

Tuesday, November 26, 2002, the first Turkey Cup hockey game between the Des Moines Oak Leafs and the Des Moines Capitals was held at Buccaneer Arena. It may have started small, but it has continued to grow each year increasing in excitement and rivalry but most of all it has remained a community event. 

Hockey back then wasn’t huge, but it was growing. The USHL Des Moines Buccaneers had been in town since 1980, the house league and travel programs in Des Moines at all ages was continuing to grow and with the addition of the Oak Leafs in 1998 the city now had two competitive AA high school teams.

In the summer of 2002, Shawn Edwards, President of Des Moines Youth Hockey Association (DMYHA) pitched the idea at a board meeting of an annual event that would take place around Thanksgiving. The idea would be to bring the entire hockey community together at a time when many families are visiting, college students are returning and a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday. Doug Borud, Coach of the Oak Leafs (1998-2007) and Scott Krueger, Coach of the Capitals (1998-2006) loved the idea. All three set to work to organize for that coming November.

The game was on! Since the Oak Leafs home rink at the time, Metro Ice, did not have parking or seating capacity, the teams reached out to the Des Moines Buccaneers to host this community event. The game would be held each year at Bucs Arena; however, the ‘home’ team would switch each year. In addition, and keeping with the community aspect, this would be the only time that admission to a high school hockey game would be charged and the home team that year would receive the funds to be used at a charity of their choice. Over the years many local charities have benefited from the Turkey Cup including local adopt a family programs, food banks, and the Craig Long Scholarship award.

What started off as a small way to hold a hockey community event has evolved into the largest high school thanksgiving game in the state of Iowa. And while it has become considered the ‘big’ game between these two cross town rivals and essentially the hockey homecoming of Des Moines, it remains today a true community event. Between 1500-2000 fans attend the Turkey Cup every year. Many of the fans are today’s young hockey players as well as alumni players and families from the 20+ year history that both teams now have.

The community spirit of the game has continued from the first puck drop in 2002 to present day on and off the ice. Off the ice, fans can be seen socializing upstairs and in the stands with each other. Many hugs and laughs are seen between the families and former players alike and all stay for a long time after the final buzzer has sounded. In fact, for those first few years, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the crowd to still be at the rink 2-3 hours after the game had ended! It’s a community on the ice as well! Players on each team have played together every year since they were 4 & 5 years old. It is only when they get to high school and are drafted that they are now exclusive to that team for the rest of their high school time. They may be heated rivals during the game but once the buzzer sounds and the game is over you see all the players, especially the senior classes from both teams, come together in large boisterous hugs as they sense, likely for the first time, one of life’s many milestones passing in front of them.

The Oak Leafs hosted the 20th Annual Turkey Cup at their new home rink, the MidAmerican Energy RecPlex for the first time on on Tuesday, November 22, 2022!