Founded in 1967 as a charter member of the NPSL, the club was the brainchild of Dick Cecil, then Vice President of the Atlanta Braves baseball franchise who was the Chiefs' owner.

Cecil was intrigued by the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England and decided that a professional soccer team would add valuable events for Atlanta Stadium.

The Chiefs' brand would later be revived by Cecil and Ted Turner in 1979 after the Colorado Caribous of the NASL relocated to Atlanta.

In 1966, under Cecil's direction, the Atlanta Braves chartered a franchise in the newly created National Professional Soccer League.

Shortly after the defeat, assistant manager of Manchester City Malcolm Allison said of the Atlanta team, "They couldn't play in the fourth division in England."

Following the loss, Manchester City requested a rematch, which was held June 15 and saw the Chiefs again beat the visiting team, this time 2–1.

Addressing the upset status of these two games, Atlanta Chiefs captain Ray Bloomfield, an Englishman, said, "It would be like some of your boys coming over here to play American football and then beating the team that won the Super Bowl.

"[10][11] That same season, the Chiefs would host Santos FC in an August 28 match, losing to the Brazilian team 6–2 in front of over 25,000 attendees, which was at the time the largest crowd for a soccer game in Atlanta.

[12][13] The Chiefs capped off the 1968 season by defeating the San Diego Toros in the NASL Final 1968 at Atlanta Stadium in front of approximately 15,000 spectators.

The first half, called the International Cup, was a double round-robin tournament in which the remaining NASL clubs were represented by teams imported from the United Kingdom.

After the sale, the team was renamed the Atlanta Apollos and played their home games at Grant Field on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology for the 1973 season.

[22] The Chiefs brand would remain dormant for several years until the name and logo (altered slightly) were revived in 1979 when the Colorado Caribous franchise moved to Atlanta, with Cecil and Ted Turner as owners.

[24] This new franchise included notable players such as Victor Nogueira, Adrian Brooks, Mark MacKain, Carl Strong, Webster Lichaba, Jomo Sono, and Louis and George Nanchoff.

According to a 1968 report by the Chiefs, at the time of the team's arrival in Atlanta, fewer than 150 people in the city were playing organized soccer, a number which had grown to about 16,000 by mid-1968.

of the South African Premier Soccer League was founded in 1970 by Kaizer Motaung, who had played for the Atlanta Chiefs in the 1968 and 1969 seasons.