The club was founded in 1914 as Società Sportiva Fortitudo and renamed as and enjoyed a long time in the professional leagues, spending several years in the Serie B and launching several famous players. They also won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1983. During the 1980s and the 1990s, the Calabrian side barely missed promotion to the Italian top flight several times, most notably in 1989, when they ended with the same points than fourth-placed Cremonese and Reggina, but being not admitted to the promotion playoff as having the worst results of the three in head-to-head matches. In 1991–92, Cosenza lost promotion again, with a final fifth place only two points behind of Udinese.