Pim Mulier
Encyclopedia
Willem Johan Herman Mulier (March 10, 1865 – April 12, 1954) was one of the leading figures in sporting history of the Netherlands
.
in the Frisian
village of Witmarsum. His father, Tjepke Mulier, was one of the last grietmannen of the province. Mulier's mother was Roelina Johanna Alberda. His parental ancestors hailed from Roubaix
in France
, where they carried the name Oste de Muliers. The family moved to Haarlem
in 1867.
. The competition consisted of two events: the 100m sprint and a 2km cross-country run. Both events were won by Mulier.
In his hometown of Haarlem, Mulier taught his friends the rules of football and, at the age of 14, established the first Dutch football club, the Haarlemse FC
(he would later become chairman as the club grew). The team originally followed the rules of rugby union
. There were several trees in the centre of the pitch which the players used to tactical advantage. The team later changed its rules to those of association football, about which Mulier wrote: "The first annual accounts ended our game of rugby. The [parents] asked for an explanation of the accounts. We presumably answered in our local dialect: 'If they grab you, they're allowed to grab you where they can.' [...] So the rugby was doomed, and we switched to association in 1883."
While studying in England
, Mulier also discovered sports such as field hockey
, bandy
and tennis
, which he helped introduce in the Netherlands. He also established the first Dutch lawn tennis club, the Haarlemse Lawn-Tennis Club, in 1884. While continuing studies in Lübeck
, Mulier organised the first football match in Germany
, thereafter visiting Sweden where he was taught to ski and hunt by the Sami people
.
in 1888. Mulier also wrote for the sports magazine Het Sportblad, established in 1888. He wrote books about athletics, football, winter sports, cricket and angling.
In 1890, Mulier made a skating trip to each of the eleven cities of Friesland
. This took him a total of 12 hours and 55 minutes. His notes of this trip were the basis of the Eleven-cities Tour
, of which the first was held in 1909. Contestants who finish the Tour receive a medal, the Elfstedenkruisje, which was designed by Mulier.
Mulier also initiated the establishment of the Netherlands Football and Athletics Association
, on December 8, 1889. He became the first chairman of the organisation. Mulier was furthermore the impetus for splitting off the athletics branch into a separate association in 1896. He also played a major role in the establishment of the Netherlands Olympic Committee in 1912.
Mulier died in The Hague
on April 12, 1954, aged 89.
, and a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He was also an honorary member of the Frisian handball
association, the Netherlands Field Hockey Association, the Netherlands Ice Hockey Association, the Swedish Football Association
and the Belgian Football Association
. He was awarded several foreign decorations as well, and became an honorary citizen of the municipality of Wûnseradiel
on June 28, 1950.
Many sports-related organisations in the Netherlands have been named after Pim Mulier. Both the Frisian handball
club and the football club in Witmarsum carry Mulier's name. The baseball stadium in Haarlem was named after him, as well as the Pim Mulier Open tennis tournament.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Biography
Pim Mulier was born on March 10, 1865, on the Aylva State estateEstate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
in the Frisian
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
village of Witmarsum. His father, Tjepke Mulier, was one of the last grietmannen of the province. Mulier's mother was Roelina Johanna Alberda. His parental ancestors hailed from Roubaix
Roubaix
Roubaix is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is located between the cities of Lille and Tourcoing.The Gare de Roubaix railway station offers connections to Lille, Tourcoing, Antwerp, Ostend and Paris.-Culture:...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where they carried the name Oste de Muliers. The family moved to Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
in 1867.
Early years
Mulier became interested in sport at a young age. In 1878, he helped organise the first athletics competition in the Netherlands at the Rooswijck estate in VelsenVelsen
Velsen is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on both sides of the North Sea Canal.On the north side of the North Sea Canal, in IJmuiden, there is a major steel plant, Corus Strip Products IJmuiden, formerly known as Koninklijke Hoogovens...
. The competition consisted of two events: the 100m sprint and a 2km cross-country run. Both events were won by Mulier.
In his hometown of Haarlem, Mulier taught his friends the rules of football and, at the age of 14, established the first Dutch football club, the Haarlemse FC
Koninklijke HFC
Koninklijke HFC is a football club in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It is the oldest club in Dutch history, founded by Pim Mulier in 1879. During the first years the only team played rugby but due to financial problems they switched to association football...
(he would later become chairman as the club grew). The team originally followed the rules of rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. There were several trees in the centre of the pitch which the players used to tactical advantage. The team later changed its rules to those of association football, about which Mulier wrote: "The first annual accounts ended our game of rugby. The [parents] asked for an explanation of the accounts. We presumably answered in our local dialect: 'If they grab you, they're allowed to grab you where they can.' [...] So the rugby was doomed, and we switched to association in 1883."
While studying in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Mulier also discovered sports such as field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, bandy
Bandy
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...
and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, which he helped introduce in the Netherlands. He also established the first Dutch lawn tennis club, the Haarlemse Lawn-Tennis Club, in 1884. While continuing studies in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Mulier organised the first football match in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, thereafter visiting Sweden where he was taught to ski and hunt by the Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
.
1886 to 1912
Back in the Netherlands, Mulier devoted more time to athletics. He became Dutch national champion in the 350m in 1886, and won the mile of OstendOstend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
in 1888. Mulier also wrote for the sports magazine Het Sportblad, established in 1888. He wrote books about athletics, football, winter sports, cricket and angling.
In 1890, Mulier made a skating trip to each of the eleven cities of Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
. This took him a total of 12 hours and 55 minutes. His notes of this trip were the basis of the Eleven-cities Tour
Elfstedentocht
The Elfstedentocht is the world's largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour, and is held irregularly in the province of Friesland, Netherlands.The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the eleven historic...
, of which the first was held in 1909. Contestants who finish the Tour receive a medal, the Elfstedenkruisje, which was designed by Mulier.
Mulier also initiated the establishment of the Netherlands Football and Athletics Association
Royal Dutch Football Association
The Royal Dutch Football Association is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues , the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch national football team. It is based in the municipality of Zeist.The KNVB came into being on 8 December 1889...
, on December 8, 1889. He became the first chairman of the organisation. Mulier was furthermore the impetus for splitting off the athletics branch into a separate association in 1896. He also played a major role in the establishment of the Netherlands Olympic Committee in 1912.
Marriage
Pim Mulier was married twice. He married Cornelia Constance van Duin on December 18, 1895. The couple got divorced on April 20, 1922. A year later, on May 29, 1923, Pim Mulier married Maria Louise Haitsma. He had no children.Mulier died in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
on April 12, 1954, aged 89.
Awards and recognition
Mulier was awarded as an Officer of the Order of Orange-NassauOrder of Orange-Nassau
The Order of Orange-Nassau is a military and civil order of the Netherlands which was created on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of the Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The Order is a chivalry order open to "everyone who have earned special merits for...
, and a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He was also an honorary member of the Frisian handball
Frisian handball
Frisian handball is a traditional Frisian sport, related to American handball and fives, that is most commonly practiced by people from the northern Dutch province of Friesland . It is believed to be one of the oldest ballgames and was an unofficial Demonstration sport at the 1928 Summer Olympics...
association, the Netherlands Field Hockey Association, the Netherlands Ice Hockey Association, the Swedish Football Association
Swedish Football Association
The Swedish Football Association is the governing body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues — Allsvenskan for men and Damallsvenskan for women — and the men's and women's national teams. It is based in Solna and is a founding member of both FIFA and UEFA...
and the Belgian Football Association
Belgian Football Association
The Royal Belgian Football Association is the governing body of football in Belgium...
. He was awarded several foreign decorations as well, and became an honorary citizen of the municipality of Wûnseradiel
Wûnseradiel
Wûnseradiel is a former municipality in the Friesland province of the northern Netherlands, at the eastern end of the Afsluitdijk. The official name of the municipality is in the West Frisian language, though it is known as Wonseradeel in Dutch...
on June 28, 1950.
Many sports-related organisations in the Netherlands have been named after Pim Mulier. Both the Frisian handball
Frisian handball
Frisian handball is a traditional Frisian sport, related to American handball and fives, that is most commonly practiced by people from the northern Dutch province of Friesland . It is believed to be one of the oldest ballgames and was an unofficial Demonstration sport at the 1928 Summer Olympics...
club and the football club in Witmarsum carry Mulier's name. The baseball stadium in Haarlem was named after him, as well as the Pim Mulier Open tennis tournament.