The Club Deportivo Universidad Católica is a multi-sports organization from

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

representing the

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical unive ...

that puts together 14 sport branches, being the most famous

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

branch. The club has the best infrastructure in the country and has the most sports 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 from reinvesting and competing 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 sports 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 on the university on 30 August 1927, when the then director, ''Monseñor Carlos Casanueva'' obtained the permits to use

Campos de Sports de Ñuñoa Campos de Sports de Ñuñoa () was a multi-use stadium in Santiago, Chile. It was the home ground of the Chile national football team until the current Estadio Nacional de Chile opened in 1938. The stadium held 20,000 spectators. It hosted the C ...

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 Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

, the

Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

and the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

. 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 Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

on 21 April 1937 to discuss the organization of the club. This would become the official date of the foundation. The football branch made its official debut on 13 June 1937 in the then

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

of Chilean professional football, in a game against

, 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

;CDUC * 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 * 1999–2009: Jorge O´Ryan Schütz ;Cruzados SADP * 2009-2014: Jaime Estévez Valencia * 2014-2016: Luis Larraín Arroyo * 2016-Present: Juan Tagle Quiroz

Branches

Football

The branch of

of the Sports Club Universidad Católica is the most important one of the institution, becoming one of the most successful and popular teams in

. The team is considered one of the three "great ones" from

, together with

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

and

Basketball

The

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

branch of the club currently competes in the

Liga Nacional de Básquetbol de Chile The Liga Nacional de Básquetbol de Chile, also known as the LNB Chile, is the top national basketball leagues in Chile, it is a professional league, organized by the Federación de Básquetbol de Chile. The league was created in 2010 and the old ...

, 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 Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper middle- to high-income families and is known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's e ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

. 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

Rugby

It is one of the most important teams of Rugby in

, having won the national tournament 18 times. For the

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

sports branch, their pants are black in both the official uniform and the alternative.

National tournaments

* Campeonato Central de Rugby: (20): 1949, 1964, 1965, 1975, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2019 * Torneo de Apertura: (10): 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015

Volleyball

This Branch was born in 1942 together with the Chilean Volleyball Association. The participation of José Grisante, sportsman of the club and vice president of the Association that was chaired by Benedicto Kocian of the YMCA, is key in this process. In 1943 the Association was renamed the Santiago Volleyball Association and in 1955 the Chilean Volleyball Federation was founded, which is chaired by José Grisanti and Francisco Vilarrubias as vice president, both prominent CDUC volleyball players. These are just the beginning of a long and brilliant history of the crossover, that both in ladies and in men, have been national champions an enormous number of times, being the teams with the most titles at the national level.

National tournaments

*Liga Nacional de Voleibol (men): (1): 2004 *Liga Nacional de Voleibol (women): (3): 2004, 2005, 2006 *SuperVolei (Federación de Vóleibol de Chile) (women): ''(1):'' 2008 *Copa Providencia (women): (1): 2008

Field Hockey

*Liga Nacional de Hockey (men): (1): Apertura 2006

Ski

The branch of

ski Skis are runners, attached to the user's feet, designed to glide over snow. Typically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins c ...

of the sports club Universidad Católica was founded in 1942 because of the initiative of a group of students from the

Anthem

Its lyrics were written by ''Pedro Fornazzari'', ''Charles Bown'' and ''Alberto Buccicardi'', the two last were ex players from the club and directors of the magazine ''revista Estadio''. Emulating the melody used by the supporters of the British club

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, they gave birth to the Anthem of the institution, immortalizing the phrase "''Por la Patria, Dios y la Universidad''", which translates to "For the country, God and the University".

Sports accommodation

Universidad Católica has owned four stadiums:

Estadio Universidad Católica Estadio Universidad Católica was a multi-use stadium in Santiago, Chile. The venue was also known as Estadio Baquedano and Estadio Reina Victoria, due to the boxing events held there and the good relations between the entrepreneur in charge of t ...

, located in the Maestranza and Marcoleta sector;

, which already had an extensive history in Chilean sports;

Estadio Independencia Estadio Independencia is a multi-use stadium in Estelí, Nicaragua. It is used for football matches and is the home stadium to Real Estelí. The stadium holds 5,000 people, and was renovated and equipped with synthetic turf to be used by Real E ...

, located in the homonymous commune of

and inaugurated on October 12, 1945; and San Carlos de Apoquindo.

References

External links

Official club web page

Fans web page

Fans web page

Fans web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universidad Catolica (Multi-Sports Club) Universidad Catolica Universidad Catolica Club Deportivo Universidad Católica Universidad Catolica 1937 establishments in Chile Basketball teams in Chile