Founded in 1872, they originally played as Queen's College Cork, as UCC was then known.

Recent successes include winning the All Ireland U-20 Championship in 2002.

In the same year, they also reached the AIB League playoffs for the first time, narrowly missing out on promotion to Division 1.

Leading players in that team included Denis Leamy, Stephen Keogh and Frank Murphy, all of whom went on to play for Munster.

Donal Lenihan was the last UCC player to be capped by Ireland while still attached to the club.