CCLA had conducted team play in the 1940's and renewed this venue in the early 1970's with many informal team "challenge" matches. Warren Loveland, Bill Smiley, Don Reithel, Herb Hickman and Dick Vandenburg were instrumental in creating the formal, biennial team championship which began in 1978.

After Team Championship I, the event was changed to odd-numbered years so as not to conflict with the U.S. Correspondence Chess Championship. When CCLA relinquished control of its USCCC event in 1980, USPCF changed the biennial USCCC event to begin in odd-numbered years. This is the explanation for the "one-year gap" in the history of both these events.