The club was founded around April 1943 under the name of Club Deportivo Veracruz after two clubs from the city state of Veracruz, Iberia de Córdoba and Veracruz Sporting Club, merged in order to join the Mexican First Division. At the time, both clubs played in Liga Veracruzana, an amateur league in Veracruz. These two clubs had dominated the Liga Amateur de Veracruz, winning 21 titles combined. Each of these clubs had a short stay in the Primera Fuerza – a now defunct amateur football league in Mexico City – in the early 1920s but due to the distance, the clubs generally played in the local league which was less competitive. The club kept the Veracruz Sporting Club colors, red and black, which they used in the early part of its existence and a few years later would switch the black to white, keeping red as the club's main shirt color. In their first year the club played in Parque Deportivo Veracruzano sharing the field with baseball club Rojos del Águila de Veracruz. The club's nickname was given by Manuel Seyde who had also help merge the two clubs. The club had the honor of having been one of the first clubs to play in the professional league as well as having been the first club not from Mexico City to win the tournament. Among other records the club holds is most relegations (four times) including being relegated in 2008 by its hated rival Puebla who had just been promoted the year before. The club has played in the Liga de Ascenso ever since, coming close to promotion a couple of times but falling short each time.