Starting with Pigeons

The start of the Koopman partnership history goes way back to 1915 when Cornelis Koopman was born on 31 may on his parents farm on Dommerskanaal street in Nieuw Amsterdam. This is where he grew to be a 12 year old boy that already had a passion for pigeons which stemmed from a neighbour named Mr Lugas who kept his pigeons in an old dove coat. The young Koopman would spend much of his time looking at the pigeons flying in and around the little loft as he was truly fascinated with them.

This had not gone unnoticed by the neighbour and he one day came out and talked with Cornelis about the birds. Cornelis told Mr Luger that he would love to have some pigeons of his own and Mr Luger made his dream come true when he gifted him some pigeons which Cornelis kept on the farm. The pigeons he received were not real racing pigeons but cross bred between fancy pigeons and racers but never the less this is where his real love affair with pigeon racing began. A few years passed and by now Cornelius was growing up and thinking of making his own way in life and so set himself up in business in the farming industry. The business grew into a large company which saw Cornelis become head importer of Mariman corns at that time. At the age of 35 Conelis decided it was time to settle down and so he married his long time girlfriend Jantje Keen. Together they had 4 children, all of them boys. Early on, one of them named Jaap, shown a keen interest in his father's pigeons but this was not to last, but by then the 4th son born on the 18th of February 1955 who was named Gerard was already sharing his fathers love for pigeons.

The Partnership

Indeed it was something that he had in him from a very early age. After a few years had passed the bond between father and son, where the pigeons were concerned, had grown so much that a partnership was formed and the serious side of racing was to be given the utmost priority, so much so that the newly formed partnership of Koopman and son backed (although discretely) by the mother of the family Jantje, made up their mind that they would concentrate on sprint racing. Not surprisingly they also done their homework as to the breed of pigeon they would like for these sprint events and the name that came to the fore from their studies was that of Janssens of Arendonk. So they made it their business to find the best of these pigeons and bring them home to Nieuw Amsterdam.