Pim Mulier

Willem Johan Herman Mulier was born on 10 March 1865 in the Frisian town of Witmarsum, and he grew up in a well-to-do, respectable family in Friesland. An ancestor of the family, Jan Mulier, fought alongside Louis I, Prince of Condé, in the French Wars of Religion in the 16th century. From an early age, Pim was passionate about sports. He practiced a lot of them while growing up and thus developed into an all-around athlete who competes in different sports such as football, skating, running, cycling, tennis, cricket, and bandy. During this time he learned several languages, from which he later benefited as a sports official. While studying in Sweden, he learned to hunt with the Sámi and to ski, and he even improved some of their best ski times. Mulier was the youngest of five children, two of whom died in infancy. All three Mulier children also worked as draftsmen and attended art schools, and likewise, his sister Eldina later became a respected artist and had her own studio, while Mulier himself trained in painting and drawing under the guidance of Ferdinand Oldewelt. Afterwards, he was engaged in making illustrations for Eigen Haard and Elsevier, among others. The subjects of his paintings and illustrations revolved around landscape, portrait, history, and cityscape. ==Sporting career==

Football Pim Mulier had his first contact with football while studying at Ramsgate in England, and he quickly developed an interest in the sport as he become one of the best youth players of the college. The surface of the Koekamp, where their "wrestling arena" was located, was uneven and there were a few trees in the middle of the field, but they just got used to it and played around it. In 1886 he organized the first football match within the German borders. Mulier became the leader of the club "as a matter of course", and his fellow campaigners called him meneer (sir) Mulier. In 1895 he earned a second cap for bondselftal, as the Dutch national team was called until its official inception in 1905. In 1886 he became Dutch champion in the 350 meters and two years later he won the mile event in Ostend. During the first athletics competitions organized by NVAB in 1891, he became the Dutch champion in the quarter mile. In 1890, during the long and harsh winter of 1890–91, the 25-year-old Mulier become the first man to ride the so-called Frisian Elfstedentocht, which is completing a skating tour along the eleven Frisian cities, something that he achieved in just 12 hours and 55 minutes, an unofficial record for a long time. Bandy In 1891, Mulier, with the assistance of Charles Goodman Tebbutt, which he had met in 1883 in Ramsgate, introduced bandy (a combination of football and hockey played on ice) to the Netherlands. Bandy quickly became Mulier's favorite game, stating "Bandy is my favorite place to hang out because it is the fastest game in the world, faster than football, baseball or lacrosse, it is spicier than cricket, tennis or golf, so with the bandy agreement, our beloved game is near". He also played a major role in the founding of the Dutch Olympic Committee in 1912, through his role as secretary of the NBvLO. ==Other activities==

Mulier laid at his villa in The Hague an impressive botanical garden, which even students from Wageningen are drawn to come to this day. He was also a fervent collector of antique glass, and he left an extensive collection at the Hague Municipal Museum. ==Journalism==

Pim Mulier's versatility showed itself not only in sports, but also in other social areas. In 1888 he co-founded the sports magazine Het Sportblad, of which he became the first editor. This was a modern magazine for that time, which was supported by thirty associations. He created this magazine not only to blow his own trumpet, but also to promote organized sport at an administrative level, and in fact, Mulier used the magazine to seek support for the establishment of a new sports association. He was convinced of the need for comprehensive sports organizations so that rules were unified and national and international competitions were possible. That worked as the Dutch Football and Athletics Association was created in the following year in 1889. He also published three influential books on sports at the end of the 19th century: Wintersport (1893), Athletiek en Voetbal (1894), and CricketWinter sports (1897). His second book "Athletics and Football" (Haarlem, 1894) testifies to his love for both sports. The magazine would become the official organ of the NVB. At the turn of the century, Mulier developed ideas on his own initiative for a new bill on freshwater fisheries. He presented a sketch to Cornelis Jacob Sickesz, Director-General of Agriculture, who incorporated Mulier's thoughts into a new law. Shortly afterwards, he published Vischkweekerij en conservation van den vischstand (Haarlem, 1900). Due to his good background, Pim did not have to work to earn a living, and in fact, he only had one paid job throughout his life. In 1899, he moved to the Dutch East Indies where he was editor-in-chief of the Deli Courant for almost six years until 1905. Shortly after his arrival, he founded the soccer club Sportclub Sumatra's Oostkust with two Dutch plantation workers. Contrary to the usual customs in the colony, this association was multicultural. At that time he published on labor conditions in Sumatra and the measures that had to be taken to subjugate and develop that area. In the field of journalism, he had a sharp eye and a skillful pen. He was also skillful in drawing, as evidenced by the many illustrations accompanying his own articles and books. Despite his journalist prowess, he hated interviews all his life, and hence the lack of information about his personal inner workings. In addition to his journalistic activities, he wrote and published several other books under the pseudonym Pim Pernel, which he had used since 1935 as an alias for Het Vaderland. Under that pseudonym, he wrote travelogues, Belles-lettres, and newspaper columns in Handelsblad and Het Vaderland. In a column to Flaneur, he campaigned against the "absolute dependency of married women". He found it "nonsensical" that "female people" had fewer rights than men in legal matters. He also advocated women's suffrage and admired the women's rights activists Aletta Jacobs and Cornélie Huygens. One of his closest friends was the writer Arij Prins, who was as enthusiastic about sports as Mulier. After having made a study trip through British India from 1905 to 1907, he returned to the Netherlands in the last year and was approached as an editor for Indies affairs at the Algemeen Handelsblad. ==Philosophy==

Mulier was a practical man. In his own words, he "liked to hammer something together". And when everything was done, he left things to other people. He thus pioneered work for various branches of sport, which Mulier has always regarded as a means of good development of body and character and a noble form of leisure. To him, sport was an instrument of nationalism: it contributed towards the strength, vitality and character of "Young Holland". A fit population with a keen sense of responsibility, would be able to preserve the Netherlands as a colonial power. On 12 March 2015, two days after the 150th anniversary of Mulier's birth, Daniël Rewijk obtained his PhD at the University of Groningen on a dissertation and biography about Pim Mulier. Mulier has always been an opponent of mixing professional and amateur sports. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was not uncommon for athletes to receive money or valuables for winning a match. This was especially the case in short-track speed skating and hard sailing. These prices were a welcome addition to their meager income for farmers, workers, and skippers. Mulier believed that sport should be practiced for sport itself and not for profit. The 'true' sport was practiced by amateurs or enthusiasts. Pim Mulier stood firm for the principle of 'fair play'. He believed that the game should be fair by observing the rules and sportsmanship. Later he regularly looked back to the early years of the sport, which, according to him, were characterized by less roughness of the game, more respect, and a sportier attitude on the part of the practitioner. ==Personal life==

Mulier's departure from the Netherlands in 1899 was preceded by family disputes: at first, his mother, now widowed, had rejected his new marriage in 1895 as she considered it a "mesalliance". His brother Pieter led a "frivolous" life as a single bon vivant and his sister Eldina feared that the family tradition of lucrative marriages would not be continued. His mother died in 1898, after which Pim Mulier and his sister had a falling out, probably because of inheritance disputes. His wife Cornelia Constance, born von Duin, was a former maid. Mulier's marriage ended in divorce after around 25 years, and one of the reasons for the failure was the lack of children. Mulier married his grandniece Maria Louise Haitsma Mulier in his second marriage, but this marriage also remained without children. ==Death==

Pim was still in or next to the sports field until old age. Pim Mulier died in The Hague on 12 April 1954, at the age of 89 years old. He was buried on 15 April at The Hague General Cemetery. Numerous sports officials from the associations that Mulier had founded spoke at the funeral, such as (KNSB), chairman Mr. Vliegen, who paid tribute to him. At the head of the funeral procession, he strode stately to his final resting place. In his hands, he carried a velvet cushion bearing all the decorations that Pim Mulier had received in his life. ==Legacy==

For his merits in sports, he was awarded various honorary positions since he was appointed honorary member or honorary president of various associations and federations in football, athletics, skating, handball, and cricket. The sculpture was made by the artist Frank M. Zeilstra and placed on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Keatsferiening Pim Mulier in 1986. There is also a Pim Mulier Open tennis tournament. In addition, Amsterdam, Zwolle, Stiens, Franeker, and Sneek all have streets named after Mulier; with the Sneek Sport center being located on the Pim Mulierstraat. The winner of the Elfstedentocht receives the Pim Mulier exchange prize. There is even a Hospital health care company based in Arnhem named after him. In 1985, the Pim Mulier Foundation, a national organization in the field of health management, was founded, with the purpose of improving the vitality of employees, teams, and organizations, beginning at the National Sports Centre Papendal. On 12 April 2002, the independent, non-profit Mulier Instituut was opened in Utrecht, which studies sport from a social science perspective. ==Notes==