The Club Deportivo Universidad Católica is a multi-sports organization from Chile representing the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile that puts together 14 sport branches, being the most famous the football branch. The club has the best infrastructure in the country and has the most sport branches than any other club. Until the soccer branch became independent a few years ago, it was this branch that shared its earnings with the other branches, allowing them to survive and succeed. However, these actions prevented the soccer club to reinvest and compete aggressively at the domestic and international level, where there are other clubs with bigger budgets and funds to invest in players.
Since its foundation, the colors that identify the team are the white and the blue. While in their club's logo you can see these same colors with red, besides representing it with a cross, showing the club's Catholic character.
History
The club's foundation was in 1908. Even though the sports activities in the university began years before, the idea from Raúl Agüero in 1925 to gather sport activities from the university under the same name was the beginning of the formation of what became the Club Deportivo Universidad Católica. This way, it began to act as an organized identity and totally dependent from the university on 30 August 1927, when the then director, Monseñor Carlos Casanueva obtained the permits to use Campos de Sports de Ñuñoa for the sporting activities of the university.
It began its participation in the University Confederation of sports in 1928, participating together with the Universidad de Concepción, the Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and the Universidad de Chile.
On 19 April 1937 the university joins the Chilean Football Association. Because of this, a group of students from the university, got together in a house of studies in Santiago de Chile on 21 April 1937 to discuss the organization of the club. This would become the official date of foundation.
The football branch made its official debut on 13 June 1937 in the then Segunda División of Chilean professional football, in a game against Universidad de Chile, the longtime rival of the club, in the military stadium.
In the beginning part of the 1980s, it began the migration of some sporting branches to the Sporting complex named San Carlos de Apoquindo.
Presidents of the Club
1937–1938: Augusto Gómez Soto
1939–1946: Jimmy Rasmusen Bowden
1947–1949: Óscar Álvarez Lon
1950–1951: Enrique Casorzo Federici
1952–1953: Alejandro Duque Lagos
1953–1954: Carlos Dittborn Pinto
1954–1955: Sergio Urrejola Rozas
1955–1956: Enrique Casorzo Federici
1957–1965: Eduardo Cuevas Valdés
1966–1967: Enrique Casorzo Federici
1968–1974: Manuel Vélez Samaniego
1975–1976: Raúl Devés Jullian
1976–1977: José Martínez Guichou
1978–1982: Germán Mayo Correa
1982–1993: Alfonso Swett Saavedra
1994–1996: Jorge Claro Mimica
1996–1998: Manuel Vélez Samaniego
1999–: Jorge O´Ryan Schütz
Branches
Football
The branch of football of the Sports Club Universidad Católica is the most important one of the institution, becoming one of the most successful and popular teams in Chile. The team is considered one of the three "great ones" from Chile, together with Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile.
Basketball
The basketball branch of the club currently competes in the Liga Nacional de Básquetbol de Chile, being the most successful team of Chilean basketball history, having won the old professional top-level Dimayor League five times.
The home arena of the team is the Estadio Palestino, located in Las Condes, Santiago. The team former home arena was the Santa Rosa de Las Condes arena, until the club sold it in 2009.
The youth team of the club also plays the international tournament Campioni del Domani which they have won six times.
The historic performance in the middle of the 1980s where they won a record four titles in a row, made the team "catolico" as the team with most wins in the league history. They also won the title in 2005, with the leadership of Miguel Ureta.
Current roster
Trophies
Dimayor: 5
1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 2005
Dimayor Apertura: 1
1989
Libcentro: 2
2003, 2004
Notable players
To appear in this section a player must have either: - Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player. - Played at least one official international match for his senior national team. Pablo Coro Sebastian Silva Faron Hand Maurice Spillers John Woods