[2] Deportes Quindío was founded on 8 January 1951, after a group of high-ranking personalities from the city of Armenia, at that time still part of the Caldas Department, hired the players of Argentine team Rosario Wanders, which by the end of 1950 was on a tour of Colombia.

After several talks with manager Próspero Fabrini and Moisés Emilio Reuben, who were in charge of the Argentine squad, an agreement was reached and the entire team stayed at Armenia.

[4] In 1953, the club changed its name to Atlético Quindío per decision made by the then Mayor of Armenia, and finished as runner-up in that year's league tournament, behind Millonarios.

After decades of irregular campaigns and ups and downs, ranging from a last place finish in 1966[5] to appearances in the final hexagonal in the 70s, Deportes Quindío made an outstanding campaign in the final stretch of the 1996–97 season, with players such as strikers Daniel Tílger and Rubén Darío Hernández, midfielders Marquinho and Juan Guillermo Villa, defenders Robinson Rojas, Alexánder Posada, and Frank Rengifo, keeper Darío Aguirre, team captain Jorge Iván Victoria and Óscar Héctor Quintabani as manager.

In 1998, Quindío made it to the semi-finals in the league, finishing in seventh place in the overall table and qualifying to the next year's Copa CONMEBOL, in which they lost to Venezuelan side Estudiantes de Mérida on penalties in the first round.

[2] They had a chance to make an immediate return to the top flight like in 2001, by winning the 2014 Finalización and playing the season's grand final against Jaguares de Córdoba, which they lost by a 3–2 score on aggregate.