USA Field Hockey
National Hockey Festival

Before it became the Festival, the National Tournament served as the selection trial for the US national Team. The 1955 team included former USA field Hockey President Jen Shillingford (goalkeeper) and Betty Shellenberger (far right). Shellenberger continues to participate in the festival as an umpire and sectional player.

From its roots as USA Field Hockey's national team selection opportunity, to today's status

as the world's largest field hockey event, the National Hockey Festival continues a Thanksgiving tradition of uniting friends and families.

Originating in 1922 as the National Tournament for sectional teams, the event drew the top players from each of U.S. field Hockey's regional "sections" to compete for the national championship and a spot on the U.S. national team.

"The sections were it," recalled Anne LeDuc, a three-time selection to the U.S. team in the 1950s. "We played intersectional games during the season, but when we met here (at the national tournament), it was special. It was a more personal reunion."

The tournament continued to be THE big season-ending event for sectional teams, with the different sections taking turns hosting the event from traditional field hockey hotbeds such as Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore to the sometimes-frosty climes of Ann Arbor, Mich., Denver, Colorado and Ellensburg, Washington.

Competing against the nation's best players, today's Festival athletes enjoy an equally "special" experience.

In 1975, USA Field Hockey joined with the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to co-sponsor the first collegiate championship in the U.S. as part of the National Tournament. Fifteen college teams took part in the first AIAW tournament with West Chester University winning the title with a penalty stroke victory over Ursinus in the final. The National Tournament would continue to be the site of the collegiate championship until the AIAW tournament became multi-divisional in 1979.

In 1981, the National Tournament became the National Festival with the addition of divisions for mixed (co-ed teams), as well as the introduction of a High School Jamboree featuring 12 teams of high school-aged players. The new high school age division allowed players to compete against similar teams from different parts of the country. In addition to the multi-divisional format, the tournament also adopted an alternating schedule, playing one or two years on the East Coast before traveling to California for a West Coast experience.

Today, the athletes are stronger and faster and the tournament has grown to include more up to 126 teams including more than 140 high school aged squads. However over the past eight decades of the event one thing is as true today as it was in the days of LeDuc and the other Festival pioneers: When the teams meet here it truly is a "special" time.