The History of the Wigan Warriors stretches back to the club's foundation in 1872. It was one of the founding members of the Northern Rugby Football Union after the schism from the one code of rugby football in 1895. At the elite competition level, Wigan is the most successful club in the history of British Rugby League, measured by total of trophies won. The club has won 22 Rugby Football League Championships (including 5 Super League Grand Finals), 20 Challenge Cups and 4 World Club Challenge trophies.
Wigan enjoyed a period of sustained success from the 1980s to mid-1990s which included winning the Challenge Cup eight seasons in succession and the League Championship seven seasons in succession. During this period Wigan won many other trophies including the Regal Trophy six times and the Premiership six times. The Wigan club has a Hall of Fame and has honoured several former players via induction into it. The inductees include former players Billy Boston, Ellery Hanley, Dean Bell and Shaun Edwards.
Late 19th century
On 21 November 1872 Wigan Football Club was founded by members of Wigan Cricket Club at a meeting in the Royal Hotel, Standishgate. Wigan F.C. played on Folly Field, near Upper Dicconson Street. A practice match took place on 30 November at Folly Field. After a series of trial and practice matches, the team travelled to Warrington to play its first competitive match on 18 January 1873. The game ended in a draw.
Financial difficulties and an inability to recruit quality players led to many players and members from Upholland F.C. joining the club in 1876. The club became Wigan & District F.C and moved and played its home games at the Wigan Cricket Club at Prescott Street just off Frog Lane. It is unlikely that the club fulfilled its fixtures in 1877 and disbanded at the end of the 1879 cricket season.
On 22 September 1879, the club was reformed as Wigan Wasps by some members of the original Wigan Football Club (one of which was the mayor) and many new members at a meeting in the Dicconson Arms. The club moved back to Folly Field. In 1883, Wigan won its first trophy, the Wigan Charity Cup. The club won the West Lancashire Cup in 1884 and the Wigan Union Charity Cup in 1885. The club played in cherry and white jerseys for the first time on 26 September 1885. In 1888 the club hosted the touring New Zealand Maoris.
Wigan was suspended by the RFU for breaking the strict amateur code despite its argument that broken-time payments were necessary to avoid undue hardship for its working class players. In 1895 Wigan joined with other clubs from Yorkshire and Lancashire to found the Northern Union which led to the sport of rugby league. This was a result of the breakaway from the Rugby Football Union. The "Wasps" tag was dropped and the club became known as Wigan.
Wigan's initial Northern Union game was played on 7 September 1895 against Broughton Rangers. The team's lineup that day was:
Billy Benson, forward
Jack Blackburn, forward
Jack Brown, forward
Frank Dixon, half back
Billy Halliwell, half back
Percy Jago, three-quarter back
J. Perkins, forward
E. Railton, three-quarter back
George Rigby, forward
Johnny Roberts, three-quarter back
Billy Unsworth, forward
Jimmy Walkden, three-quarter back
E. Webster, forward
John Winstanley, full back
Bill Yates, forward
When the County Championship was introduced in October 1895, Cheshire played a Lancashire team that contained three players from Wigan: Winstanley (full back) and Unsworth and Brown (forwards).
In 1896–97, because of the large number of Northern Union teams, the Northern League was abandoned in favour of two County Senior leagues. The second half of the season saw the introduction of the Northern Union Cup, later known as the Rugby League Cup. Wigan reached the third round before being knocked out by St. Helens.
Early 20th century
In 1904, 14 clubs resigned from the two county leagues to form a new Northern Rugby League for season 1901–02. Wigan however remained in the Lancashire Senior Competition.
Wigan became sub-tenants of Springfield Park, which the club shared with Wigan United AFC, playing its first game there on 14 September 1901. A crowd of 4,000 saw Wigan beat Morecambe 12–0. During this season Wigan won the Lancashire Senior Competition.