The club was founded on May 24th, 1927. After the merger of Náutico Club and Federación Universitaria, the University Competition Club was established. At first, the club was founded by a group of students from the university of Chile, and the team was affiliated to a sports organization of the university. Until 1980, the president of the club decided that the team would be independent from the university, thus creating the current professional football club of the University of Chile.

In any case, the club still retains many university characteristics. The club team emblem is very similar to the sports symbol of the University of Chile. Owls represent wisdom in universities. The color of the uniform is also very similar to that of the university, with a big red U printed on it. From the management point of view, this will also lead to some minor disputes. For example, the president of the university said that if the team needs to become private property, then the club must be renamed.

In 2006, the club declared bankruptcy and accepted control, which was strongly criticized by the supporters of the team. The new chairman immediately abandoned the symbol of the team and turned it into a private joint-stock company. This season, the team played the second worst record in history, only better than the team that was relegated to 1988, and only achieved the position of 1 1.

Catholic University and Kolokolo Football Team are the traditional competitors of the team, and their games are often called the derby of the Chilean League. All the home and away games scored an average of 2 2.33 1 and conceded an average of 1.25 1.33 1.