(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Netherlands Basketball Federation)
IN MEMORIAM
...Frank Voskuilen...
(1950 - 2022)
(© Photo: Neth. Basketball Fed.) |
 Former Haarlem Baseball Week & KNBSB-administrator Frank Voskuilen passed away
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Frank Voskuilen, who has been very active in the seventies through the eighties for the Haarlem Baseball Week and has been a member of the Board of the KNBSB, passed away on Friday (March 18) at the age of 71.
Besides his baseball- and softball-activities, Frank Voskuilen was one of the initiative-takers to create the Haarlem Basketball Week, which was organized annually for twenty years from 1982 through 2003.
Frank Voskuilen was involved in all editions, which earned him the nickname 'Mister Basketball Week'.
Frank Voskuilen was born in 1950 in Haarlem.
He was the son of Piet Voskuilen, who in 1962-1978 was the Alderman for Education, Sports and Youth Affairs in Haarlem, were he also was the Deputy Mayor since 1976.
Mayors in those years were Oscar Cremers, Leonard de Gou and Jan Reehorst, who all have thrown out ceremonial first pitches during the Haarlem Baseball Week.
Mister Voskuilen passed away on December 31, 1981 when he suffered a heart attack while being on holiday.
Frank's mother Wil Voskuilen was an administrative worker for several years at the Head Office of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) when that was located in Santpoort.
Like his father, Frank said what he thought and had a clear own opinion.
But he was also caring for others,and very driven and passionate in what he did.
Frank quickly became involved in baseball, softball and basketball, but also in education.
For more than forty years, Frank worked in education as a teacher.
He later became the director of the Hannie Schaftschool, 'De Cirkel' (both primary schools) and Mytylschool 'De Regenboog' (for physically handicapped children), all located in Haarlem.
Voskuilen retired as director of the latter in 2015.
In 1972, Frank Voskuilen was a member of the Press Committee of the Haarlem Baseball Week for the first time.
1972 was a special tournament, as for the first time the National Teams of Cuba (reigning World Champion) and Nicaragua participated.
For Frank, this was the beginning of a 14-year association with this biennial tournament.
In all those years, showed his passion, came up with several new ideas to entertain the spectators and to promote the event.
During the Baseball Weeks of 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978, the Press Committee was chaired by Hans de Bie.
Other members included Henk de Bruin (1972, 1974), Hans van Raalte, Minne Vellinga, Martin Winnubst and Hans van der Sluis (in 1978).
De Bie and Van Raalte also were members of the Organizing Committee.
Before the 1978 Baseball Week, Voskuilen became a member of the Organizing Committee and also became the vice-chairman of the Press Committee.
Two years later, he succeeded De Bie as chairman.
In 1980, 1982 and 1984, Voskuilen would lead the Committee, which also included Hans van Raalte, Henk Knol, Minne Vellinga, Sylvia Hoorn and Yvonne Herkemij.
When he took over as chairman of the Committee, a new phenomenon was introduced.
Before the 1980 Baseball Week, line-ups, box scores and brief news-items were only distributed to members of the media.
From 1980, it were De Bie and Voskuilen who decided to make this information also available for the spectators.
They compiled a jacket which not only included the box scores, but also the news-items, as well as background stories and newspaper clippings and each game had its own new edition.
To realize this, a new group of volunteers was created , formed by youngsters, who compiled the various papers with information in the 'jacket', then sold them to the spectators.
They also distributed the line-ups (for free).
From 1988 on, the 'jacket' was replaced by a magazine that was produced for every single game.
That stayed that way through 2004.
From 2006 on, one magazine is produced per day.
In 1988, the editorial staff was led by Rob van Tuyl, since 1990, Marco Stoovelaar is the editor-in-chief.
When Frank Voskuilen joined the Organizing Committee in 1978, it was led for the tenth and last time by Gerard Voogd, who had presided over the event since the first edition in 1961.
In 1978, the secretary was Freek van Muiswinkel, who later became known for his role as Duty Officer Jochems in the longrunning TV-series Baantjer.
Other members then were Rita Schrijber, Gonny Wedemeijer (both tournament-secretaries), Piet Tromp (treasurer), Theo Vleeshhouwer (tournament director), Hans de Bie (media affairs, with Frank), Piet van Deenen (accomodation), Karel de Graaf (hotel affairs), Henk de Bruin and Freek Bos (both members).
Unfortunately, of this group, Theo Vleeshhouwer, Piet Tromp and Hans de Bie passed away in recent years.
After the 1978 Week, Tromp succeeded Voogd as President, while De Bie became Vice-President.
Tromp was succeeded as treasurer by Wim Ascherman, while Ben de Brouwer and Jules de Pierre took over from De Graaf and Bos.
This committee remained unchanged through 1985.
Most of them also were part in the same positions of the Committee that would organize the World Baseball Championship in 1986, the first time that this event was to take place in the Netherlands.
Voskuilen stepped down during 1985.
Voskuilen was also involved in the first two editions of the Haarlem Softball Week (1980, 1983).
During both tournaments, he led the Press Committee, which also included Ben Muller and Peter Schüler.
For the inaugural edition, the Organizing Committee was formed by Theo Vleeshhouwer (president), Dries de Zwaan (secretary), Jacques Kort (treasurer), Suze van Breukelen, Conny Broere, Ben de Brouwer, Janke Nijdam and Wil Soolsma.
In 1983, Voskuilen became a member of the Organizing Committee for the second edition, as did Truus Ruiter.
In March 1982, Frank Voskuilen was one of two newcomers elected into the Board of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB), together with Rob Hoogkamer.
They replaced Freek Bos and Ronald Boot, who were not eligible for election anymore.
Through August 1984, Voskuilen was a member of the KNBSB-Board, which remained almost unchanged in those years.
Guus van der Heijden was the chairman, Theo Vleeshhouwer the secretary and Dries de Zwaan the treasurer.
Other members were Jules de Pierre, Wil Soolsma and the already mentioned Rob Hoogkamer.
When Voskuilen first joined, Gerard Voogd was the vice-chairman, but he was succeeded by Frans van Aalen the following year.
In 1982 and 1983, Egbert van der Sluis also was a member of the Board, before being succeeded by Dick Bliek in 1984.
In the years that Voskuilen was a member of the KNBSB-Board, he also was the chairman of the Softball-Section.
That was created in 1982 with two other sub-boards for baseball and recreation.
Other members of the Softball-Section were Peter Schüler, Teun van den Berg, Ineke Mulder and George Presburg, who formed an ambitious group that wanted to change things.
In 1984, a discussion within the Board led to Voskuilen's departure.
As had been done in previous years, during the annual Congress of the European Softball Federation in March, the organizing club and dates were announced for the European Cup-tournament later in the year.
But this time, it was not easy to find a location.
Eventually, before the start of the regular season in April, Dutch club Nuenen decided to step up and organize the event and playing dates were announced for late September.
However, the board of the Softball-Section stated that these dates not only were announced too late, but also that it wanted to schedule the Championship Finals of the big league-season in the same weekend.
It was one of several discussions going on in that year.
Looking back to the situation, then-KNBSB-secretary Theo Vleeshhouwer wrote in 1984 that there were a number of incorrect accusations.
He added that although there were discussions within the Board, a solution would surely have been reached, as there was no conflict between persons at all.
But a solution didn't come and so, in early August, the entire board of the Softball-Section stepped down and Voskuilen also left the KNBSB-Board.
As mentioned, Frank Voskuilen was also very closely involved in the Haarlem Basketball Week.
During the Summer of 1982, he was one of the initiative-takers to create the tournament.
The Stichting Sportinitiatieven Haarlem, which also was responsible for organizing the Baseball Week and Softball Week, agreed to set up the event and Voskuilen was named tournament director.
Several contributors and volunteers that were active in the Baseball Week, also contributed to the Basketball Week for many years.
Frank led the Organizing Committee in eighteen editions.
By the way, Peter Schüler and George Presburg, with whom Voskuilen had been in de Softball-Section Board, also played a role in the Basketball Week for many years.
To promote the first Haarlem Basketball Week in 1982, a special basketball-game was organized between Dutch baseball-champion Haarlem Nicols and the Netherlands Baseball Team, which had participated in the World Championship in South Korea a few months earlier.
Nicols won with a 34-16 score.
Amongst the players that participated in the game were Frank Bos, Gerlach Halderman, Marcel Joost (who all played for Nicols), Wim van den Heuvel, Ronald Stoovelaar and Charles Urbanus (who represented the Orange Team).
From 1982 on, the Haarlem Basketball Week was organized annually, mostly beginning in December just before Christmas and ending just after New Year.
Like the other sports-weeks in Haarlem, it was an international event with a strong field of participants with club-teams coming from abroad as well as from the Netherlands.
After the 20th Week had ended in early January 2003, it took until 2006 for the next (21st) edition to be organized in December of that year.
Through 1997, all tournaments were staged at the Kennemer Sportcentrum.
Like the Haarlem Baseball Week and Haarlem Softball Week, the Haarlem Basketball Week developed into a wellknown international tournament.
It was generally recognized as one of the best tournaments worldwide.
Through the years, many top-teams traveled to Haarlem to participate, including several American college-teams, but also the National Teams of Australia, Brazil, Canada and the former Yugoslavia.
All these events also became known for the good organization of the tournaments, the strong participating teams, the hard working and caring volunteers and the knowledgeable spectators.
In 1998, the tournament moved to Rotterdam, where it was first organized in Sportpaleis Ahoy' in December of that year under the name Holland Basketball Week.
In Rotterdam, three tournaments (1998, 1999, 2000) were organized bringing the total to nineteen.
The twentieth edition was then organized in 2002.
Voskuilen stepped down as Tournament President after the 1999 edition, which was his 18th.
That also was a troublesome tournament, as was reported in De Telegraaf-newspaper in December 1999.
A few days before the first game was to be played, the Netherlands National Team withdraw, as the Netherlands Basketball Top (NBT) was unable to compile a representative team for this period, also because some players who played in foreign leagues were not available.
Coincindentally, Voskuilen had been one of the initiative-takers of the NBT, which was set up two years earlier and it was then also agreed that the National Team was to participate in the Basketball Week.
But now, only a few days before the tournament, Voskuilen was informed that the Orange-squad could not play.
During his tenure in leading the tournament, Voskuilen always had many ideas, just as he had when he was a member of the Organizing Committee of the Haarlem Baseball Week.
For the Basketball Week, Voskuilen introduced entertainment around and between the games in the Kennemer Sporthal.
He was able to get some mascottes from the professional National Basketball Association (NBA) to Haarlem.
And several times, Voskuilen managed to get the Chicago Luvabulls, the cheerleaders of the famous Chicago Bulls, to perform in Haarlem.
In 2007, the name was changed into Amsterdam Haarlem Basketball Week with tournaments in even years to be organized in the Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam and in odd years in Haarlem.
And so, the 2008 edition, which was the 22nd, was organized in Amsterdam.
However, the tournament for 2009 was cancelled after the organisor went bankrupt.
The event moved back to Haarlem, where it continued under the name of Haarlem Basketball Classic, but the 2010 edition had to be cancelled when two teams withdraw.
In 2011, it was tried to move the tournament to Groningen, but initially that didn't happen, resulting in the dissolving of the foundation that organized the Classic.
But a restart came in 2012 when the Groninger Basketball Week was first organized and Frank Voskuilen gave his blessing to the new tournament during a preceeding press conference, wishing the organisors well.
Unfortunately, no new editions have been staged since then.
On the website of the Netherlands Basketball Federation, Ronald van Dam wrote an In Memoriam in which he mentioned that Frank Voskuilen was honored during the nineteenth Basketball Week in 2001.
In his honor, number 18 (for his eighteen tournaments) was retired and he was also named Member of Merit of the Netherlands Basketball Federation.
Frank Voskuilen was very passionate and driven in what he did, whether it was for the Baseball Week or the Basketball Week.
He loved what he did and he enjoyed sharing his passion with the spectators, whom he found a very important group that needed to be entertained.
During the Baseball Week, Frank was an enthousiastic leader of the Press Committee and stimulated the people around him, making it a pleasure to work with him.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Frank's family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(March 21)
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