Brandon Wheat Kings Hockey Club (WHL)

The Brandon Wheat Kings are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Brandon, Manitoba. They compete in the Western Hockey League, and joined the league in the 1967–68 season. Prior to that they played in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and were known as the Brandon Elks for a short time in the 1940s. They won 8 Turnbull Cup Championships as Manitoba Junior Champions, 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1960, 1962, 1963, & 1964 and appeared in the Memorial Cup five times: in 1949 (as an MJHL team), 1979, 1995, 1996 and 2010, losing each time. The team plays its home games in Westman Communications Group Place (Keystone Centre). They also played at Wheat City Arena until 1969, and the Manex Arena from 1969 to 1972. Starting in 1973, the Wheat Kings owned and operated a farm team in the MJHL, called the Travellers. An earlier incarnation of the Wheat Kings played for the Stanley Cup in 1904, but lost to the Ottawa Senators. The 1949 Brandon Wheat Kings won the Abbott Cup defeating the Calgary Buffaloes. They went on to lose the Memorial Cup to the Montreal Royals. The 1949 Brandon Wheat Kings were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in the team category. The Wheat Kings hold the CHL record for most points (125) in a single season, setting the mark in 1978–79. The Western Hockey League announced on October 16, 2008, that the Wheat Kings were chosen to host the 2010 Memorial Cup championship at the Keystone Centre. They reached the final game, losing to the Windsor Spitfires.