History

The old logo

Het Zinkstuk was officially founded on September 1, 1973 as the Zwemfederatie Het Zinkstuk, as part of the Utrechtse Studenten Sports Foundation (USS) Mesa Cosa. The federation, however, already existed for a long time and the year 1 April 1969 is also mentioned. At the time of the creation of Het Zinkstuk, swimming was the only sport practiced. The origin of the water polo department took place later. In the 70's practice took place in the Hommel, Kwakel and Ozebi swimming pools (indoor swimming and bathing equipment), which is now a snooker and pool center. There was mainly recreational swimming, match swimming had yet to fully blossom. The 1976/77 season marked the start of water polo training at the Ozebi swimming pool. The association was then a lot smaller with three board members. In 1969, there were even two board members.

In the following season (1977/78), the name Utrechtse Studenten Zwem- en Polofederatie Het Zinkstuk was used, and a few years later the official name: Utrechtse Studenten Zwem- en Waterpolofederatie (USZ&WF) Het Zinkstuk. The water polo department got its own swimming hour in swimming pool Brandenburg, in the Bilt.

Despite the small number of members of the club, lots of activities were organised by Het Zinkstuk. In 1977, a team of Het Zinkstuk participated in the 5th Batavia race. From then on, Het Zinkstuk is represented annually. In 2014 Het Zinkstuk became the first of all student swimming-associations! At the end of the 80's Het Zinkstuk even managed to get two teams from Scotland to Utrecht for a match, something we can learn a lot from today. In 1980 the Dutch University Championship (NUK) was organized with contributions in the organisation by Het Zinkstuk. The name of the present NUC is the Great Dutch Student Championship (GNSK).

The level of the water polo has varied in the history of Het Zinkstuk. In the booklet of the 6th lustrum (30 years of existence, see below) of Het Zinkstuk, the 80's and early 90's are mentioned as a period in which Het Zinkstuk was very successful, with occasional wins on the GNSK. Also during that time there was a water polo ladies team. After a period in which they were absent, we are happy to have a women's team again since 2013.