Editing Excelsior Rotterdam (section)

===First successes===
In the season 1945–46, Excelsior gained their first success by promoting to the Eerste Klasse, the highest tier of Dutch football before professional football was introduced in 1954. The deciding match against [[VUC (football club)|VUC]] was played in [[Feijenoord Stadion|De Kuip]] and attracted 52.000 spectators. Excelsior relegated in the next season, but managed to promote for the second time in the season 1951–52. After the introduction of professional football, Excelsior won the [[Eerste Divisie]] championship three times (1974, 1979 and 2006) and promoted to the [[Eredivisie]] various times, usually to relegate not long afterwards.

Excelsior once reached the [[KNVB Cup]] final in the season 1929–30, but lost the match to fellow Rotterdam club [[Feyenoord]] (0–1). Excelsior's biggest pre-war achievement was the win of the Zilveren Bal trophy. Excelsior beat Feyenoord (5–0) in the finals of the highly rated pre-season tournament.<ref name="history"/>