 Happy Birthday, Quick Amsterdam celebrates 100th anniversary!
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
On Friday, March 1, Quick Amsterdam became the first club in Dutch baseball-history to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
With this, the club not only is the oldest existing baseball- and softball-club in the Netherlands, but in all of Europe.
The jubilee was celebrated in the evening with a ball, then a reception followed the next day.
Both the ball and the reception took place in the Park Hotel in Amsterdam, the same location were the club was founded 100 years ago.
On March 1, 1913, six young men sat down in what was then called Hotel Café Restaurant 'Parkzicht'.
The six were all former members of Amsterdam-based baseball-club Excelsior, which was formed two years earlier, but stopped playing baseball shortly thereafter.
Present at that meeting were Chris Knip, Kieft, Egbert Poster, J.D. Prior, Wim Rijke (who became the team's leading pitcher) and G.A. Leih.
Not present at the meeting, but a member from the beginning was Gerrit Stam.
At the meeting, it was decided to form a new baseball-club, which had no name yet.
Knip was named its first Chairman, while Leih became the first Secretary.
Shortly thereafter, the club was named Quick.
| Chairmen of Quick Amsterdam |
| period | | Chairman |
| 1913 - 1914 | | Chris Knip |
| 1914 - 1917 | | L. Stark, Jr. |
| 1917 - 1946 | | Emile Bleesing |
| 1946 - 1952 | | Pim Adriaansz |
| 1952 - 1955 | | Dick Vonk |
| 1955 - 1969 | | Pim Adriaansz |
| 1969 - 1989 | | Ben van Wattingen |
| 1989 - 1999 | | Tom Helmers |
| 1999 - 2005 | | Rob Woudstra |
| 2005 - current | | Joost Comperen |
It was the start of something that became Dutch baseball-history.
And it was and is a very rich history, as Quick had several persons within the club who were the pioneers of the beginning of baseball in the Netherlands.
Besides the already mentioned founders, they include Emile Bleesing, Wim Drilling and M.C. (Maarten) Bakker.
All were very involved in the development of the sport, not only in Amsterdam, but throughout the country.
And they also were involved in the Dutch Baseball Federation, which was founded in 1912 and celebrated its 100th anniversary last year as KNBSB.
Bleesing, Drilling and Bakker were all longtime members of the board for the Federation.
Especially Bleesing did a lot to promote the sport.
He was Chairman of the Board for the Dutch Federation for 32 years (March 1915-March 1946) after having been its Secretary for two years (March 1913-March 1915).
At the same time, Bleesing became the third Chairman of Quick in 1917, a position he also held until 1946.
Bakker served 14 years in the Dutch Federation's board as its Secretary and later Vice-Chairman, while Drilling was a member of the board of the Dutch Federation for 13 years.
In the sixties, youth comptitition were named after Bleesing and Bakker.
The 30 years that Bleesing was chairman of Quick is still a club-record.
What's even more remarkable is that Quick had only nine persons in its 100 years who led the club as chairman (one of them in two periods).
Other longtime chairmen were Pim Adriaansz, who succeeded Bleesing in 1946 and led the club for seven years.
In 1955, Adriaansz returned as chairman and this time held the post for 15 years.
Ben van Wattingen, Quick's seventh chairman, led the club for 21 years.
This means that Bleesing, Adriaansz and Van Wattingen were chairman of the club for a combined total of 73 of its 100 years!
The five living chairmen were all in attendance today.
In the first years of its existence, there were only a few clubs and there were no competitions.
In 1922, the first-ever competition was organized by the Dutch Federation.
Participating in it were four Amsterdam-based clubs who played only a handfull of games, facing each other two times.
Quick remained unbeaten, won five games, played one tie and became the first Dutch baseball-champion.
Also playing in that first season were Blauw-Wit and Ajax, which became very successful baseball-clubs at the highest level in the following years.
Hercules, the fourth team, stopped playing after the 1922 season.
Two years later, the first club from Haarlem played in the highest division.
In 1925, Quick celebrated its second Dutch championship.
Ten years later, in 1935, Quick captured its third and final Dutch title.
In its 100 years of existence, Quick had several ups and downs.
It changed playing site frequently, but found a permanent home at Sportpark Sloten in 1989.
There, a new field is currently under construction and will be opened on May 25.
On Saturday, March 2, the jubilee-reception was attended by former and current club-members, representatives from other clubs, the municipality and federations.
...Chairman Joost Comperen with the photo of Emile Bleesing...
...which he just received from Karin Vroonhof of the KNBSB...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Karin Vroonhof, who represented the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association, presented current Quick-chairman Joost Comperen with a cheque of 500 Euro.
Besides that, she also handed out a nice, big photo of Emile Bleesing, one of only a few existing photos of him being active as a player.
Jan Esselman, President of the European Baseball Confederation, presented Comperen with a present on behalf of the CEB.
Andrée van Es, Alderman of the Municipality of Amsterdam, also addressed the persons present at the reception.
She presented Quick with the Jubilee Medal of the City of Amsterdam, which is handed out to companies, institutions, foundations and clubs, who are based in Amsterdam since its foundation and exist 50 years or longer.
On behalf of the Urban District of Nieuw-West, Ronald Mauer handed out a cheque and mentioned the renovation of the club's current playing site.
Besides these representatives, former chairmen Ben van Wattingen and Pim Adriaansz, as well as former secretary Joke Lammen looked back to the history of Quick.
Pim Adriaansz held a very humorous speech in which he told of his first meeting with legendary Emile Bleesing.
He also told how he joined the club, became its chairman and underscored the familiar atmosphere at Quick.
Adriaansz also complimented the current board for its activities.
Joke Lammen gave a memorabilia she won 40 years ago to chairman Comperen.
Also looking back to the history of Quick was Joop Köhler, who was the editor-in-chief of the Jubilee-Book of the Dutch Federation's 100 years anniversary.
The first edition of the very nice and richly illustrated jubilee-book of 100 years of Quick was presented by Jos Schoonis, who designed the book, to chairman Joost Comperen, who then presented the book to former chairman Pim Adriaansz.
Chairman Joost Comperen closed the official part of the reception.
He told a story how he was contacted one-and-a-half year ago by someone who had found a medal at a market which was incripted with 'Quick'.
When Comperen made an appointment to look at the medal, it proved to be the Championship-medal of 1925, which was given to the players of Quick for winning their second Dutch championship-title.
...The Park Hotel in Amsterdam, where the club was founded...
...The anniversary celebrations also were held here... | | 
...Specially made jubilee-cakes...
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...Quick-member Eva Schram hosted the official part of the reception... | | 
...Karin Vroonhof represented the KNBSB... |
...Karin Vroonhof congratulates Quick with its anniversary... | | 
...Joost Comperen with a gift from the KNBSB... |
...CEB-President Jan Esselman is the next speaker... | | 
...Esselman presents Comperen with a gift from CEB... |
...Alderman Andrée van Es represented the City of Amsterdam... | | 
...She presented Quick with the Jubilee Medal... |
...Joop Köhler talks about the history of Quick... | | 
...Former chairman Ben van Wattingen tells stories... |
...Former chairman Pim Adriaansz held a humorous speech... | | 
...and got several laughs with his stories... |
...Jubilee-book designer Jos Schoonis... | | 
...Schoonis presents the first edition to Comperen... |
...Ronald Mauer spoke on behalf of the Nieuw-West district... | | 
...and handed Quick a cheque... |
...Former club-secretary (1971-1983) Joke Lammen... | | 
...Joost Comperen with the gift from Joke Lammen... |
...The reception was well-visited... | | 
...Joost Comperen shows the Championship-medal of 1925... |
...The photo of Emile Bleesing as hitter...
| | 
...Jan Esselman (CEB), Karin Vroonhof (KNBSB)...
...with Quick-chairman Joost Comperen... |
...The Championship-medal from 1925... | | 
...Historic photos decorated the room... |
...TV-director Martijn Lindenberg (center) played for Quick...
...and attended the reception...
...Lindenberg directs sports for Studio Sport... | | 
...Five Quick-chairmen on one photo...
...Joost Comperen, Rob Woudstra, Tom Helmers,...
...Ben van Wattingen and Pim Adriaansz... |
...Everyone enjoined the reception...
| | 
...Quick-boardmembers Sylvia Blommestein-Smit...
...and Hanneke Ederveen... |
...Former boardmembers Wim and Tiny van der Poel look at the gifts...
...Wim was secretary, Tiny treasurer in 1958-1960... | | 
...A big screen showed historical images...
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| (© All Photos: Marco Stoovelaar) |
(March 4)
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