Early years (1928–1939) According to sources, Toon Steinhauser and the brothers Piet and Cor van Schijndel always played football in
Oss on Jurgensplein, a central square, after school. On 9 April 1928, they decided to found a club named
Klein Maar Dapper (K.M.D.; English: "Small But Brave"), but when it turned out that more clubs had that name, the choice fell on T.O.P. ("To Our Pleasure"). On 7 May 1930, T.O.P. played its first competition match, on a field on the Molenstraat, behind Hotel van Welten and next to the local cinema. The pitch was a bare, uneven surface, covered with sand with an occasional tuft of grass. During home games, the goal posts were picked up from bakery Toontje van Bergen, then located in the Nieuwe Brouwerstraat. T.O.P. had two teams in the 1930–31 season both competing in the local division
1e Klas Maasbuurt. The first team reached promotion to the
Derde Klasse of the
Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), where it remained for the coming years. T.O.P. won its first title in 1939, in the Derde Klasse E. Thereby, the club qualified for playoffs to promotion to the
Tweede Klasse, where they had to face
SV Nevelo from
Oisterwijk and Hero from
Breda. Both teams had already qualified and promotion became a fact. The years 1940–45 also marked a tragic period for T.O.P., as two of their players, Pince van der Aa and Hugo Brinkman, were permanently disabled during acts of war. An ambiguous situation emerged in the Netherlands in September 1944, as the
southern provinces were liberated, including
Oss on
27 September 1944. While the rest of the country was still at war,
allied soldiers played a benefit match on 14 October 1944 against a combined
association football team from Oss. The site of the memorable match is the Gemeentelijk Sportpark Oss on the Berghemseweg, which had been seized by German soldiers as part of the occupation in 1939. The proceeds went to
Dutch soldiers in the
Dutch East Indies. The match was organized by the organisation
Nederland-Indië en Katholiek Thuisfront M.O.O. Oss.
Winning the Tweede Klasse (1949–1953) For many years, T.O.P. played at the top of the Tweede Klasse, competing for the championship. Spirits were therefore high in 1949, when the title was finally won in the Tweede Klasse A. The decisive match was played on 30 January 1949, where T.O.P. played a home match on the Heescheweg against its biggest rivals at the time,
VV DESK from
Kaatsheuvel. In front of a sold-out stadium, with an average of 2,500 spectators during that season, the T.O.P. team lived up to its high expectations and beat DESK 2–0 to secure the title. Head coach
Janus Spijkers was, however, unable to repeat the feat in the play-offs for promotion that followed. The Tweede Klasse A championship did not result in promotion to the
Eerste Klasse. Thereby, TOP became the first of the initial eighty professional clubs to return its license to the KNVB. The
following season evolves in dramatic fashion, as TOP Oss concede 100 goals and finish bottom of the table, and a major cleanup of the squad ensues. However, due to there being no relegation from the second-tier at the time, TOP Oss suffer no consequences of the embarrassing season.
Harry van den Ham took over as the new head coach afterwards, and led the team to ninth place in the league table. The former
goalkeeper leads TOP Oss to two
period titles and the team qualifies for
Nacompetitie (promotion play-offs) three times in five years. De Koning forged a successful team based on local talents from
Oss, such as
Bart van Hintum,
Erik Quekel,
Tony de Groot and
Regilio Jacobs. Ten months later, the club experienced a historical low point. After an intense relegation battle with
Telstar and
Fortuna Sittard, FC Oss suffered relegation to the
Topklasse by losing the final match 5–1 to
MVV Maastricht. Thereby, they became the first club to relegate to the third level of Dutch football in more than forty years, after the KNVB had reformed the league structure to merge professional and amateur football leagues.
Third division champions and a record year (2011–present) Following the disastrous relegation,
Dirk Heesen is promoted from assistant to head coach and given the task of leading the club back to the
Eerste Divisie. A strong
2010–11 season, with only one loss to
JVC Cuijk (2–1), meant that the club won the 2010–11 Topklasse
Sunday Group. In the decisive match, FC Oss beat
Achilles'29 2–0 after goals from
Jean Black and
Geoffrey Galatà. However, IJsselmeervogels had already decided to deny promotion due to financial reasons and a desire to continue as an amateur club, which meant that FC Oss had secured promotion prior to the championship game. After the return to the Eerste Divisie, FC Oss alternate good seasons with bad season. Under head coach
Dirk Heesen (2011–12) the team plays spectacular football, and score many goals. With
Anton Janssen (2012–13) and
Klaas Wels (2017–18) as head coaches, Oss compete for a place in the post-season play-offs for large parts of the season, but miss out in the end. With key players such as
Kevin van Veen,
Johnatan Opoku,
Luuk Koopmans,
Justin Mathieu and
Ryan Sanusi, Oss finishes the season in ninth place. The season would also prove to become the best historical season in club history. Many club records were broken in the
2018–19 season. TOP Oss never finished as high in the league table (6th); never had the finished with as many points (62); and never had the team won as many games (18). Under head coach Wels, the TOP Oss team were, however, eliminated in the second round of the
promotion play-offs by
Sparta Rotterdam (5–0 on aggregate). In the round of 16,
AZ was the opponent at home in the
Frans Heesen Stadion. In the league, results were mixed. However, the season was cut short due to the measures taken to combat the
COVID-19 outbreak. TOP Oss finished in a creditable 10th place in the Eerste Divisie in the
2020–21 season. In the spring of 2021, the club announced that the expiring contract of head coach Wels would not be extended. He was succeeded by Belgian manager
Bob Peeters, manager of
Westerlo. In addition,
Ruben Roosken and
Philippe Rommens both moved to Eredivisie clubs. After a disappointing season, Peeters was dismissed and Kristof Aelbrecht was brought in as his replacement. ==Honours==