We recently found out that the city of Willebroek is going to demolish the wonderful De Schalk, which has been abandoned for a couple of years now. But this isn't the only absolute gem in the neighbourhood. Only a couple of minutes away K Puurs Excelsior RSK is playing in their magical stadium in the Kerkhofstraat.
Puurs already had football history before WWII with Puursica which was founded in the 30s. After internal disagreements a few members of Puursica decided to form Puurs Excelsior FC IN 1938. After having played in the Flemish leagues for 5 years, they joined the Belgian FA in 1943. The next two decades Puurs Excelsior would play in the regional leagues, until they reached national football in 1965 by promoting to fourth division.
That was also the year the team moved to their new stadium in the Kerkhofstraat, where they currently still play. It shows the terracing is dating from that period. Puurs Excelsior did great and only after two years they promoted to third division. Even there the results were great, but after a few years they had to fear relegation. In 1975 they had to go back to fourth division. Five years later they had to say farewell to national football and after 15 years they relegated back to the regional leagues. They went all the way in those regional leagues, even all the way back to the lowest division there is.
In the meantime the ladies team of Puurs Excelsior, DAVO Puurs (founded in the early 70s), split with the men's team in the early 90s and both went their own ways. The ladies team is playing on an awkward ground a few 100 meters down the road, a stadium we'd still like to visit soon.
In 2006 the neighbouring Ruisbroek SK faced the end of their existence and in order to find a solution for mainly the youth teams Puurs and Ruisbroek merged into K Puurs Excelsior RSK (with the RSK obviously referring to Ruisbroek SK). Up until now the team is going up and down between the two lowest regional leagues, but this ground deserves more. We do hope the team managed to go to the national divisions in the future!
One of the best known players to have ever played at Puurs, although only in the youth teams, was Bjorn Vleminckx who would later have a wonderful career at teams like KV Mechelen and Club Bruges.