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| Full name | Be Quick 1887 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Good-Old | ||
| Founded | 10 April 1887; 138 years ago (1887-04-10) | ||
| Ground | Stadion Esserberg,Haren | ||
| Capacity | 12,000 | ||
| Chairman | Johan Vreeken | ||
| Manager | Paul Matthijs | ||
| League | Eerste Klasse | ||
| 2023–24 | Vierde Divisie D, 15th of 16 | ||
Be Quick 1887 is afootball club based inGroningen, Netherlands. Currently members of theVierde Divisie, the fifth tier of theDutch football league system, the club was established in 1887, and the first team play their home matches at the 12,000-capacityStadion Esserberg. The club's colours are yellow and red.
Be Quick won the1919–20 Netherlands Football League Championship, becoming the first and only club from the Northern Netherlands to win the Dutch top-flight title.[1]
Be Quick 1887 was founded on 4 October 1887 by students of a localgymnasium. The club joined the football competition in 1895, and was placed in theTweede Klasse Noord, then the highest tier of football in the northern districts of the country.
Be Quick joined the newly establishedEerste Klasse in 1916, and would remain in the league until the introduction of professional football in the Netherlands in 1954.
The heyday of Be Quick came between 1915 and 1926. The club won the title in the northern football competition in every season except for 1925. On 6 June 1920, Be Quick won the national football title, by defeatingVOC ofRotterdam, champion of the western football league, 4–0. Of that team, goalkeeperDeck Ruijter Zylker was the only player who wouldn't make it to theNetherlands national football team.
When professional football was introduced in the Netherlands, in 1954, Be Quick joined the professional leagues. They were placed in theTweede Divisie, where they won the 1959–60 title. Be Quick played in theEerste Divisie for a number of seasons, but withdrew from the ranks of professional football after the 1963–64 season.
Upon returning to the amateur football structure, Be Quick were placed in the Tweede Klasse (nowEerste Klasse). The club were promoted to theHoofdklasse in 1992, suffered relegation to theEerste Klasse in 1995 and to theTweede Klasse in 1997. After one season in the Tweede Klasse, the club returned to the Eerste Klasse, finishing the first season there in second place and winning the title in the second season, 1999–2000.
The club was relegated back to the Eerste Klasse in 2002, but secured promotion a year later, and has played in the Hoofdklasse since. They were promoted to the Topklasse in 2013, but went relegated after one only season in the top Dutch amateur level. Two seasons later they returned to the renamedDerde Divisie by placing second in Hoofdklasse C. In 2018 the club would get relegated from the Derde Divisie again, playing in the Zondag Hoofdklasse A until it got renamed to theVierde Divisie in 2022. In 2024 the club would finish 15th in the Vierde Divisie D, meaning the club would be relegated to theEerste Klasse, the 4th highest amateur level and the 6th level in the complete Dutch football pyramid.
The successes between 1915 and 1926 allowed the club to buy a piece of land to the south of the city of Groningen. Stadion Esserberg was then built, designed by architectEvert van Linge, one of the players of the team that won the national title in 1920. The stadium had a capacity of 18,000 when it was built, and now is located in the territory of the municipality ofHaren, just a mere four kilometers south of Groningen. Nowadays, it has hosted to the Eurovoetbal tournament.
| Honour | No. | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands Football League Championship | 1 | 1919–20 |
| Tweede Divisie | 1 | 1959–60 |
| Northern Football League Championship | 18 | 1895–96, 1896–97, 1905–06, 1914–15, 1915–16, 1916–17, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1919–20, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1940–41 |
| Eerste Klasse | 2 | 1991–92, 1999–2000 |
