Okapi Aalst

Piet de Coninck van Noyen started a basketball club in Aalst in January 1949. It was called BBC Aalst.

The club won the Belgian Second Division in 1969–70 and again in 1974–75. Through those years the town had a second side, Black Boys Aalst, and the two met in the Aalst derby during the 1970s.

In 2001 the club was restructured and went bankrupt. It was re-established as Okapi Aalstar, and the Okapi name has stayed ever since. The new club won the Second Division in 2005–06, then took the Belgian Cup in 2011–12. It won the Belgian Supercup in 2012 and again in 2013.

The league title stayed out of reach. Okapi Aalstar reached the Belgian League Finals in 2013–14 and again in 2015–16. BC Oostende beat them both times.

The Aalstar name was dropped and Okapi Aalst returned in 2020. The club now plays in the BNXT League and the Belgian Cup. Its blue and white goes into the Okapi Forum, which seats 2,800, in the town where de Coninck van Noyen began.