Club Universitario de Deportes is a Peruvian professional sports club, in the capital city of Lima. It is primarily known for its football club, which has competed in Liga 1, the top tier of Peruvian football, since 1928. Popularly known as Universitario, they are one the most successful teams in Peruvian football, with 29 titles, and have never been relegated. The club was founded on 7 August 1924 under the name Federación Universitaria by students of the National University of San Marcos, but was forced to rename itself in 1931.
The club won its first Peruvian title in 1929, one year after its debut in the first division. The club won its first double in the 1945 and 1946 seasons and won its first treble after conquering the 2000 season. Since then, Universitario has won twenty-nine first-division titles and was the first Peruvian club, and the Pacific, to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores in 1972. Universitario is one of the two most popular teams in Peru. Universitario's youth team is U América FC which currently participates in the Copa Perú. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, an international organization recognized by FIFA, Universitario was the best Peruvian club of the 20th century and the 28th most successful in South America.
In the year 2000, they opened the 80,093-seat Estadio Monumental, currently the largest stadium in Peru and second-largest in South America, retiring their smaller Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernández which was converted to a public training ground used by the club and the reserve team.
Universitario and Alianza Lima participate in the Peruvian Clásico, which has its roots in the club's first participation in the Peruvian Primera División in 1928. The rivalry is among the fiercest on the continent and is the oldest and largest rivalry in Peru. It also has rivalries with Sporting Cristal, Deportivo Municipal, and Sport Boys.
Universitario has the most important soccer infrastructure in Peru, with Estadio Monumental, Lolo Fernández and Campo Mar as venues to train and practice not just football but a variety of other sports. Along with a men's football team, Universitario has a volleyball, futsal (indoor football), and women's football team. It also has a women's and men's football reserves team.
History The «U» is regarded as one of the big three of Peruvian football. It plays its home matches at the Estadio Monumental, which has a capacity of 80,093 spectators, making it the second-largest football stadium in South America and one of the largest in the world. To date it is the team that has won the most national championships in Peru, with a total of twenty-nine titles (seven in the amateur era and twenty-two in the professional era). In 1972 it was runner-up in the Copa Libertadores, the best performance of the first team in an international tournament. It also holds a U-20 Copa Libertadores won in 2011.
One of the main characteristics of Universitario de Deportes is its multi-sport nature. In addition to its main section, football, the club has teams in other sports disciplines such as basketball, volleyball, futsal and women's football, among others. It also has a farm club of the first football team, called Club Deportivo U América, which competes in the Copa Perú.
With 49 international appearances in official tournaments organized by CONMEBOL, it is, along with Sporting Cristal, the Peruvian club that has played the most continental cups, It is the second-best Peruvian team in the all-time table of the Copa Libertadores, and is considered by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics to be the best Peruvian team of the 20th century. In addition, a large number of the club's footballers have been selected to represent Peru in various international events, particularly in its greatest achievements, the Copa América editions of 1939 and 1975.
Foundation & early years (1924–1927)
José Rubio Galindo, a student in the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, and Luis Málaga Arenas, a student in the Faculty of Medicine, dedicated their free hours to exchanging ideas with the aim of realizing a shared desire: «to form a great institution». Later they would be joined by Plácido Galindo, Eduardo Astengo, , Mario de las Casas, Alberto Denegri, Luis de Souza Ferreira (who scored the first Peruvian goal at a FIFA World Cup), Andrés Rotta, Carlos Galindo, , Jorge Góngora, Pablo Pacheco and Carlos Cillóniz, among others.
The club was founded on 7 August 1924 as Federación Universitaria also known as "Federación Deportivo Universitaria" or "Federación Universitaria de Fútbol" (actual FEDUP) by students and professors of the National University of San Marcos such as José Rubio, the first president, and Luis Málaga, the creator of the club crest. Others present during the foundation were Plácido Galindo, Eduardo Astengo, Mario de las Casas, Alberto Denegri, Luis de Souza Ferreira and Andrés Rotta. At first, Federacion Universitaria was a small league that held tournaments between the faculty departments of the university.
The National Sports Committee, predecessor of the Instituto Peruano del Deporte and the highest sports body in Peru at that time, recognized the University Federation as if it were a League. Thus, together with the Peruvian Football League, the Amateur Association, the Liga Chalaca, Circolo Sportivo Italiano and Lima Cricket and Football Club, they formed the Football Federation. After participating in various inter-university tournaments and friendly matches between 1924 and 1927, the Peruvian Football Federation invited the University Federation to take part in the 1928 Selection and Competition Championship (Primera División Tournament).
It officially debuted on May 27 against of Chorrillos, which it defeated 7–1. At the end of the championship, the University Federation finished second behind Alianza Lima, against whom it disputed the title in three matches (1–0 win, 1–1 draw and 2–0 loss). In 1929, the championship featured only twelve teams due to the suspension of Alianza Lima for refusing to release its players to the national team. In this tournament, Universitario won its first national title, finishing the championship with seven wins, three draws and one loss, for a total of seventeen points, one more than Circolo Sportivo Italiano, which it had defeated 7–0. Carlos Cillóniz, a Universitario footballer, scored eight goals, becoming the tournament's top scorer.
The amateur era (1928–1950) In 1928, the Peruvian Football Federation allowed the club to enter the Peruvian Primera División, the country's premier division. The club surprised opposing and supporting fans that year because they were the runners-up of the season. During that season, on 23 September 1928, Universitario played the first clásico with Alianza Lima, the defending champion of the season, and won 1–0. However, the team lost to Alianza in an end-of-season play-off for the league title after drawing 1–1 in the first leg and losing 2–0 in the second leg. The following year Universitario won its first season title and was crowned Peruvian champion, preventing los Blanquiazules from winning a third consecutive title.
In 1930 the first FIFA World Cup was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, and the Peruvian national team attended the event with a squad in which the presence of eight footballers from the merengue side stood out (Eduardo Astengo, Carlos Cillóniz, Luis de Souza Ferreira, Alberto Denegri, Arturo Fernández, Plácido Galindo, Jorge Góngora and Pablo Pacheco). After the World Cup, the club's first official tour took place: it traveled to the provinces by steamship to face Association White Star, whom it defeated 1–0, then toured Huacho and took part in the Copa Gubbins. That same year, it was part of group 2 in the national tournament, achieving two wins and a draw, thereby advancing to the final round, where it finished third.
In 1931, the rector of the university, José Antonio Encinas, forbade the club to use the name Federación Universitaria. As a result, the club changed its name to Club Universitario de Deportes retaining the symbolic "U" in their name. In that same year, 18-year-old Teodoro Fernández, historically known as "Lolo" Fernández, debuted as a regular player of the team in an international friendly against the Deportes Magallanes of Chile.
Universitario's second title, in 1934, generated controversy because according to the season regulations, the season champion would be determined by the points earned by the senior teams and a fraction of the respective reserve teams. Under these regulations, Alianza Lima would be league champions; however, both senior teams had individually attained six wins, one draw, and one loss and the determining factor was the points obtained in the reserve league. Universitario's officials asked that a play-off between the first division teams be played to determine the season champion. Alianza Lima agreed to the play-off match which was subsequently won by Universitario with a score of 2–1. But according to other sources, this title Universitario won was not the league title itself, but a secondary title; thus creating controversy. Because of that, Alianza Lima considered itself as the champion of this year. However, the Peruvian Football Federation and the Sports Association of Professional Football, both recognize the title of this year belong to Universitario.Sportive Association of Professional Football (Perú), Memorial Book of Gold 1912–2012, ADFP, Azagraphic Perú SAC, Lima, 2012, p. 21. Furthermore, in 2012, FIFA published an article in which Universitario appears holding the 1934 championship.
The 1935 amateur tournament featured only five teams: Alianza Lima, Sport Boys, Sportivo Tarapacá, Universitario and Mariscal Sucre. It was played between September 15 and October 20. The only team that played all its matches was Sport Boys. The other teams only played two matches and did not continue, since the rosados (Sport Boys), having won all their appearances, were crowned national champions; Universitario finished third with three points. In 1936 the championship was not held due to the Peruvian national team's participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
At those Olympic Games, the crema side contributed four footballers to the national team (Arturo Fernández, Teodoro Fernández, Orestes Jordán and Carlos Tovar), with a great performance from Lolo Fernández, who was the joint second top scorer of the Olympic football tournament with seven goals. After finishing third in the 1937 season, in 1938 the team began a run that lasted five years and five months without suffering a defeat in the Peruvian football derby. A year later the «U», coached by Englishman Jack Greenwell, achieved the third title in its sporting history. It secured nine wins, three draws and only two losses, scoring thirty-two goals, while opponents only managed to beat their goalkeeper on fourteen occasions. In that 1939 championship, the student squad played its official 100th match, a 7–1 win over .