Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbal en Atletiek Club was a Belgian football club from Antwerp, founded in 1899 when most players of Antwerp FC left that club. It played in the 1920 Olympic Games stadium named the "Kiel". Winners of seven Belgian league titles between 1922 and 1939 and two Belgian Cups in the 1970s, the club's 100-year history ended with dissolution in 1999. Since then, its legacy has been continued via rebranding of other local clubs: Beerschot AC (from KFC Germinal Ekeren, also now defunct) and the extant K Beerschot VA (from KFCO Wilrijk).
History
Origins
In 1895, Ernest Grisar acquired a racecourse with its buildings and annexes near the "Beerschothof" park in Kiel, in the south of Antwerp, which consisted of a 19-hectare plot of land with stables, changing rooms, chalet, and a grandstand. Four years later, his son Alfred, seeing the place and its facilities, suggested the idea of creating a multi-sports club where they could practice field hockey, polo, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics and, of course, football. Following Ernest's approval, Alfred founded the Beerschot Athletic Club in the colors of purple and white on 3 September 1899, doing so with the help of his friends Max Elsen, Edouard Lysen, Charles Hunter, and Paul Müller. Ernest died a few weeks later in November, so his son then became the owner of the facilities and the club that he had named Beerschot, in reference to a nearby wooded park called "Beerschotshof".
The young Grisar sought advice for his start in management and surrounded himself with friends to help him, giving each of them a sports section to manage, but choosing his favorite sport for himself, football, whose section was started in February 1900, and then officially registered in July of that year. Following this defeat, the majority of the Antwerp players left the club and joined the newly founded Beerschot AC under the chairmanship of Max Elsen and later in the season Paul Havenith. There were so many that Antwerp was unable to continue in the highest division and withdrew temporarily from the league; this episode was the catalyst for the rivalry between the two sides. Their runner-up finish in 1901 allowed them to compete in the 1901 edition of the Challenge International du Nord in Tourcoing, where the club won its first-ever piece of silverware after beating Standard Athletic Club 4–3 in the semifinals, and then Léopold Club de Bruxelles 2–0 in the final on 12 May.
In early 1901, Beerschot AC was the driving force behind what is now considered the first-ever (unofficial) match between the national teams of Belgium and the Netherlands, which was held in the club's field on 28 April. The two sides contested the so-called Coupe Vanden Abeele, which was offered by Beerschot's secretary Frédéric Vanden Abeele, and the game was refereed by Charles Maggee.
thumb|upright=1.25|Historical chart of Beerschot VAC and its successors' league performance
The Golden Age
Having returned to the Highest Division in 1907, Beerschot did not leave it again until the end of the 1980–81 season for a total of 73 years and 66 consecutive seasons in the highest Belgian division.