When you put together Hawaii and U.S. mainland Thanksgiving traditions along with BYU-Hawaii students, you get Turkey Bowl in the sand.Turkey Bowl is a tradition born in backyards on the T-day holiday where Americans love food and football. Typically a neighborhood, church or school will hold a small, informal tournament on Thanksgiving morning or over Thanksgiving weekend. Some BYU-Hawaii mainland students reminisced about their Turkey Bowls at home, shared how they continued the tradition at BYUH, and talked about how being in Hawaii has changed the game’s original format.Chris Toronto, a senior business major from Utah, said he played in a Turkey Bowl each year before starting school at BYUH and now he plays here too. “Back home, my first Turkey Bowl was on a team with the Scouts from church. We played three games: One on Thanksgiving morning against other Scouts from another ward. The next day with another group of Scouts from a different ward and Saturday the same. There is no winner. Everyone plays in the spirit of the holiday, but we do get competitive enough for the fun. The older I got, the funnier the tradition was.” Last year Toronto said he and some buddies from campus went down to Waimea and played some football just for fun and to keep alive the tradition. He said he hopes to do the same thing this year.Steven Smith, a senior in exercise science from California, said, “When it was my first year here and Thanksgiving was around the corner, I started to feel home sick because I had never had a Thanksgiving away from home. I wanted all the food and all the traditions just like I did at home.” Lucky for Smith, he said he wasn’t the only one who wanted to take some traditions from home and celebrate them in Hawaii. “Some of my friends and I got together at the beach for football. We all associated Thanksgiving with football, and it was just natural that we made it happen here.” Smith said the Hawaii Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving football game is his favorite tradition he has recreated here, and it has also made him grateful for having friends who celebrate this tradition with him each year.“Besides the food, what would Thanksgiving be like without football,” said, Aaron Belliston, a sophomore in exercise science from Utah. “I grew up playing mini tournaments with all my family every Thanksgiving morning before the big feast.” Belliston described how all his siblings and cousins would play together and the adults would split up and play against each other too. “Tradition is tradition, so it will go with me where ever I am, and that includes here. Last year I played just a simple game of football, and honestly, I had a lot of fun…. I might have even liked it more than my chaotic family games back home.”
Writer: Jessica Tautfest ~ Multimedia Journalist
