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JUX THE WAKE OF GLORY
1930-1931
1931-1932
1932-1933
1933-1934
1934-1935
1935-'936
1936-1937
1937-1938
1938-1939
It started off in the Cafe East India, in Kalvers-
traat, Amsterdam's most elegant shopping centre.
On March 18, 1900, a small group of moustached
gentlemen in top hats meet there. A letter, written
in the flourished handwriting of 'Pa' Dade, has
convoked them: 'By this letter the undersigned
have pleasure in inviting you to honour them
with your presence on Sunday next, March the
eighteenth, at a quarter to ten in the morning in
one of the upper rooms of Café East India in or
der to discuss the start of a completely new foot
ball club'.
The reach agreement very quickly in that stuffy
little room upstairs. Amsterdam has got a new
Third-Division club. Its name: Ajax.
But let us put things in their proper historical
order. To be precise, we must point out that long
before the turn of the century a few lads were
keeping themselves awfully busy running behind
the 'fickle brown monster'. In 1893, four years
after the foundation of the Netherlands Football
and Athletics Association—now the Royal Dutch
Football Association an obscure club called
Ajax pops up in a little village on the outskirts of
Amsterdam. Dade end his friend Stempel do not
confine themselves to football proper, they see
to the organising side of the business. It is they
who realize that onlyla well-timbered organisation
can guarantee the survival of their humble club.
After the 'discovery' of football Pirn Mulier, who
was to be the first president of the Dutch FA,
brought it over from England many hopeful
starts were nipped in the bud. There was Sevios,
Thor (Dutch initials for To the Wellbeing of Our
Carcases), Vios and many more. Hence that
meeting in 1900. There was to be an efficient
administration, the club should not die within a
year. That the decision was right is proved by
its outcome: Ajax is still Holland's bouncing
football baby.
The name of Ajax hit the headlines [or the
firs time in 1908, It merged with the strong Third-
-Division club 'Holland', a step which was much
approved of in the capital: Amsterdam lags
behind and no longer represents the prime of
Dutch football.
It is in 1911 that Ajax finally breaks through:
it reaches the First Division.
Playing in the champion team a.o. were:
Grootmeyer, Pelser, Fortgens (first cap) and
Schoevaart. Trainer: the Englishman Kirwan. Two
years later Ajax has a relapse and is relegated
to the Second Division.
'Pa' Dade the great founder of the club, who
steered it through troubled waters for more than
ten years, leaves Amsterdam for a little village
somewhere in the country. Now that the 'peace
angel' has gone, there is a succession of rows.
After peace has been signed again, the First
World War keeps Ajax away from
promotion. In 1918, however, Ajax cannot be
stopped; they climb right up to the top of the
ladder and win the national championship com
petition.
The thirties are Ajax' Golden Decennium. In
this pediod they topped the tables
Look at this list
1Ajax, 2. Feijenoord.
1Ajax, 2. Feijenoord.
1. Go Ahead, 2. Feijenoord.
1. Ajax, 2. KFC.
1. PSV (Philips), 2. Go Ahead,
1Feijenoord, 2. Ajax.
1Ajax, 2. Feijenoord.
1. Feijenoord, 2. Heracles.
1. Ajax, 2 DWS
During the war years 1940-45. Ajax plays second
violin in the' emergency competitions'. The Ger
man occupator has ravaged the club which has
many Jewish members. After the. Second World
War there is a great revival. Young talents come
to the fore, e.g. Van. Dijk, Potharst, Drëger, Van
der Hart, Van Stoffelen and Michels, their present
trainer. In 1947 they have recovered sufficiently
to win the eight national title. Then there follows
a long period of silence. But exactly three years
after the introduction of semiprofessionalism in
the Netherlands in 1957. Ajax reaches the top of
the ladder again. The ninth 'golden plaque' is
their reward.
We have now come to the recent past. Feije
noord Rotterdam, the traditional 'enemy', is only
a hair's breadth from the national championship
when in the decisive encounter Ajax crushes all
Rotterdam illusions. Then there is a five-year back
stage interval during which Feijenoord (Rotter
dam!, DWS (another Amsterdam clubl and PSV
(Philips, Ein-dhoven) are in the limelight.
But 1966 brings the come-back: with great supe
riority Ajax becomes Dutch champion for the
eleventh time. There is no club that can resist the
representatives of Amsterdam. Suburbia. This then
completes the Ajax trilogy: three Dutch FA-cham-
pionships in succession, in the short period of
semiprofessionalism in this country. No other
club in the Netherlands can boats such a feat.
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