Surrounded by Leuven, Brussels and Wavre, you'll find the village Huldenberg. OHR Huldenberg is the number one team of the village, but they have quite the interesting history. Discover this together with us.
Football in Huldenberg only started in 1942 (in full war times) when Olympic Huldenberg was created. Unfortunately, the team disappeared five years later. Ever since 1947, the villagers had to look for football joy elsewhere. At least for almost 20 years.
In 1965, a new club was finally founded; Football Club Huldenberg. As of then, things evolved rather quickly in the village and the later added surrounding villages. In 1970, Sporting Klub Ottenburg started as well and later that year Voetbalklub Sint-Agatha-Rode joined the party. Only one year later, the latter changed their name into Voetbalklub Rode.
The local rivalries started and their derbies compensated quite well for the lack of football the decades before. None of them would however manage to reach the national leagues. Quite the contrary even. Apart from a couple of years in the second highest regional league for VK Rode, the clubs mainly played in the second to last and last regional leagues. And all of that went on right up until 2009.
Because... Modern football had already made sure the landscape changed drastically and things were no different in Huldenberg. Initially all three clubs would merge into one, but during the discussions SK Ottenburg decided to pull back. FC Huldenberg and VK Rode did go through with the talks and Voetbal Klub Huldenberg was born. The matricule number of VK Rode disappeared and their ground was helplessly abandoned.
Four years later, SK Ottenburg came back to the table to talk and a total merger was concluded. In 2014, the deal was finalised and the new name became a hommage to all three teams. Ottenburg-Huldenberg-Rode Huldenberg, or OHR Huldenberg in short, would do well afterwards. In the meantime they managed to climb up to the top regional league. Who knows what the team is capable of next.
The old grounds of VK Rode were abandoned, but the team did keep the old stadium of SK Ottenburg. Right now it's mainly being used by the youth teams of OHR Huldenberg. The Terrein aan de Leuvensebaan has grown into a living memory to long lost times and hopefully not yet forgotten derbies.
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.
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