In July 1994 the American Professional Soccer League accepted an Atlanta franchise for 1995: the Atlanta Magic, owned by Sam Chase. By November, Chase had entered a new team instead, the Atlanta Ruckus, and several Magic players went with it, including Bill Andracki, Chris Hellenkamp, Brian Moore and Mo Suri. Chase then missed the league's deadline for a $100,000 letter of credit, and South African businessman Johnny Imerman bought the team.¹

The Ruckus played the first game in the history of the renamed A-League on May 5, 1995, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps. Under coach Lothar Osiander they finished fourth and reached the final, losing to the Seattle Sounders over three games.¹

The success did not pay. Imerman's losses reportedly passed $600,000 in the first season. The league took over operations in June 1996, and Vincent Lu bought the club that August. The 1996 team won three of 22 matches. In June 1998, after Lu refused a renewed franchise agreement, the league suspended him and ran the team itself as "A-League Atlanta."¹

An inquiry from the kit maker Umbro led to a rescue. John Latham, a lawyer at the Atlanta firm Alston & Bird, bought the team with Bobby Glustrom. In September 1998 they hired Mike Balson as general manager, and Balson hired Nuno Piteira as coach.¹

In September 1998 the new owners renamed the club the Atlanta Silverbacks, after Willie B., Zoo Atlanta's famous silverback gorilla.¹ Willie B. had spent about 27 years alone in an indoor enclosure before moving to an outdoor habitat in 1988.²

The renamed club moved to DeKalb Memorial Stadium in Clarkston for 1999 and spent its first three seasons as an affiliate of Major League Soccer's Dallas Burn. In January 2000 David Cormack joined the ownership group, then left in September to run Aberdeen F.C.¹

In August 2000, six months after Willie B. died, Atlanta and the Tennessee Rhythm played for the first Willie B. Cup. The Silverbacks won 4–1 in Nashville, then won again the next night at DeKalb Memorial, outshooting Tennessee 21 to 5. Brian Piesner scored twice in that game.³ Atlanta won the cup four times before it was retired in 2007.¹

On the field the turnover was constant: seven head coaches between 1996 and 2001. Brett Mosen's 2002 side made the playoffs and reached the third round of the U.S. Open Cup, but the 2003 team won four of 28 matches.¹ The Silverbacks still won the Southern Derby in 2002 and 2004.¹

The club's lasting legacy is a place. In 2004 the first fields opened at a complex in unincorporated DeKalb County, off Northcrest Road between Interstate 85 and Chamblee-Tucker Road. A 5,000-seat soccer-specific stadium, first named RE/MAX Greater Atlanta Stadium, opened over the grass pitch on June 3, 2006. The whole site became Atlanta Silverbacks Park.⁴

The A-League became the USL First Division in 2005. After two eighth-place finishes and shared and outright Southern Derby wins in 2005 and 2006, Jason Smith's 2007 team finished fourth and reached the league final, the club's first since 1995. The opponent was Seattle again, and Seattle won again.¹

The 2008 side finished ninth with ten draws, and then the club stopped playing.

The Silverbacks went on hiatus for 2009. In November of that year they joined a group of clubs breaking away from the USL to found a new North American Soccer League. U.S. Soccer did not sanction the league until November 2010, so the club sat out that season too and returned in 2011.¹

Boris Jerkunica restarted the club in the second-division NASL in 2011.¹¹ The comeback season went 4–20–4.¹

In May 2012 the Silverbacks became the first club to sell the right to host a U.S. Open Cup match. Their third-round tie with Seattle Sounders FC moved to Starfire Sports Complex outside Seattle on May 30, and the sale was controversial.^1,10 That July, former U.S. international Eric Wynalda took over as interim head coach and director of soccer. He replaced Alex Pineda Chacón and Rodrigo Ríos and then appointed Brian Haynes as head coach. That fall the club put its name to a fan vote. The ballot offered Silverbacks, Atlanta Chiefs, or a write-in, and Atlanta FC was added after write-in support. The name stayed, and a new logo followed in January 2013.¹

Spring champions, 2013

The NASL split 2013 into spring and fall seasons. Haynes's team won the spring with a 6–3–3 record and 21 points, which put the Silverbacks in the Soccer Bowl, and the club hosted the final at Silverbacks Park.^1,5 The official attendance on November 9, 2013 was 7,211.^5,6 Five minutes into the second half, Marcos Senna met an uncleared free kick with a half-volley past goalkeeper Joe Nasco. It was the only goal, and the New York Cosmos won 1–0.⁵ Haynes was named NASL Coach of the Year but was let go in December after a seventh-place fall.¹

Two MLS scalps, 2014

The club's best Open Cup run came the next summer, with Wynalda as technical director. After a 5–0 win at Chattanooga FC, Atlanta beat Real Salt Lake at home. In Colorado, play stopped for about forty minutes for lightning and hail. Jaime Chavez scored twice, and the Silverbacks then held on with eight men after a melee left them with five red cards: Chavez, Kwadwo Poku and Borfor Carr, plus Wynalda and staff member Ricardo Montoya.⁸

Against Chicago, McCaulay's goal early in the second half made it 1–1. Late goals from Jeff Larentowicz and Alex sent the Fire through.^7,9

The end

In 2014, the year Major League Soccer awarded Atlanta an expansion team, Jerkunica began looking for a buyer.¹¹ On December 2, 2014, the NASL licensed the Silverbacks name from Jerkunica and Henry Hardin and ran the club itself for 2015, with Gary Smith as coach.¹ No buyer came forward. On January 11, 2016, the league suspended operations. Commissioner Bill Peterson said it had held serious talks but found no local group able to run the club the way the league's other teams were run.¹¹

Jerkunica kept the Silverbacks name and the park. Six weeks after the NASL club folded, he announced a new ownership group with John Latham, John Hardin, United Futbol Academy and Phoday Dolleh. The group would run an amateur men's team in the fourth-tier NPSL and a women's team in the WPSL, both at Silverbacks Park from May 2016.¹² The Silverbacks had already fielded an NPSL reserve side for three seasons.¹²

In January 2019 the NPSL club split from Jerkunica, lost the right to the name, and became Atlanta SC.¹ Silverbacks Park is now owned by an investment group and is used mostly for rugby and soccer.⁴