Wigan Warriors Rugby League Football Club is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.
The club competes in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby league system. Formed in 1872, the club is a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union following the schism in 1895. The club is the most successful club in the history of the sport, having won 165 trophies in total (8 of these before the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union).
The club has played its home games at the Brick Community Stadium since 1999. Before this, the club's home was Central Park, since 1902. The club first wore its now-signature the cherry and white colours in 1885, and adopted these colours on a permanent basis in late 1888.
The club has won 24 league titles (17 first division and 7 Super League), 22 Challenge Cups and 5 World Club Challenges. Wigan's most successful period was during the 1980s and 1990s, with the club winning seven consecutive league titles, eight Challenge Cup finals in a row (1988–1995) and the World Club Challenge three times, including the 14–20 win against Brisbane Broncos at Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in 1994.
History
1872–1902: Formation, Re-formation and NRFU foundation On 21 November 1872, Wigan Football Club was founded by members of Wigan Cricket Club following a meeting at the Royal Hotel, Standishgate. The meeting saw around 50 members enroll into the club most of whom were members of the cricket club. The following committee was selected: T. R. Ellis, H. V. Kyrke, J. Sayers, E. R. Walker, J. Smith, J. Souter, H. Wall and R. Procter. The recently re-elected Mayor of Wigan Mr Nathan Eckersley was made club president. Many of the club's founding members were well-to-do; including business owners, solicitors and magistrates. Wigan F.C. played on Folly Field, near Upper Dicconson Street and used the nearby Dicconson Arms Hotel as a HQ.
The first match, a practice match where members played against each other, took place on 30 November at Folly Field and attracted around 2,000 spectators. After a series of trial and practice matches, they travelled to Warrington to play their first competitive match on 18 January 1873. The game ended in a draw. The club played six games in its first season finishing with a record of three wins and three draws.
An inability to recruit enough regular and quality players led to many members of Upholland Football Club joining the club in 1876. This was a significant boost to the playing ranks. The club changed its name on 20 October 1876 and became Wigan & District Football Club to represent the new influx of players which had joined from the outskirts of town. The Upholland club disbanded due to the large number of players who joined Wigan. The club moved and played its home games at the Wigan Cricket Club at Prescott Street just off Frog Lane. The first game at Prescott Street was played against St. Helens on 25 November 1876 which Wigan won comfortably. The club did not fulfil all its fixtures in the 1877/78 season. The club played its last match that season against Liverpool Wanderers on 17 November 1877. There are no current records of the club after 23 November 1877 that year as the club disbanded. Many of the members who joined Wigan from Upholland eventually returned to the Upholland club, which was re-formed following the Wigan club being disbanded.
On 22 September 1879, the club was re-formed as Wigan Wasps Football Club by new members at a meeting in the Dicconson Arms. The main instigators of the re-formation of the club anew were W. L. Baldwin, J. Slevin, J. Underwood, Joe Wardle and others. Mr. Underwood was secretary and Mr. Alfred Hodgkinson was named as the treasurer. Many of the new members involved in the re-establishment of the club had also been involved with the Hare & Hounds running club and were of a more working-class background than the cricketers who had originally founded the club. The club moved back to Folly Field and used the Dicconson Arms Hotel as a HQ again before using the Legs of Man Hotel in the town centre as a HQ a few years later.
In 1881 the club reverted to its original name of Wigan Football Club. It had been previously suggested, but Club Secretary William Marsden wished to first send a letter to Wigan Cricket Club as a courtesy, since cricketers had created the original Wigan Football Club. The cricketers were no longer involved with football, and the cricket club secretary responded that the cricketers had no intention of forming another football club with that name, or at all. As such, Wigan Football Club was rechristened with its original name and remained the only rugby football club in the town.
In 1883, Wigan won its first trophy, the Wigan Union Charity Cup. The club won the West Lancashire and Border Towns Union Cup in 1884 and the Wigan Union Charity Cup again in 1885. The club played in cherry and white jerseys for the first time on 26 September 1885. In 1888 they hosted the touring New Zealand Maoris.
Notable Wigan players in this period included Ned Bullough, William 'Billy' Atkinson, John 'Jack' Anderton, and most notably James 'Jim' Slevin. Slevin scored 131 tries over his 290 appearances, and the club won 8 trophies during his tenure.
Wigan, Leigh and Salford were suspended by the RFU for breaking the strict amateur code despite their argument that broken-time payments were necessary to avoid undue hardship for their working class players. The clubs were placed joint bottom of the Lancashire league. With automatic promotion and relegation, they faced dropping down a division, and potential financial ruin. In 1895 Wigan joined with other clubs from Yorkshire and Lancashire to found the Northern Union which led eventually to the sport of rugby league. This was a result of the breakaway from the Rugby Football Union.
The County Championship was introduced in October 1895 with Cheshire entertaining Lancashire. The Red Rose side contained three players from Wigan: Winstanley (full back) and Unsworth and Brown (forwards).
In 1896–97, due to the increased 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.
In 1904, fourteen 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 they shared with Wigan United AFC, playing their first game there on 14 September 1901. A crowd of 4,000 saw them beat Morecambe 12–0. During this season Wigan won the Lancashire Senior Competition.
Wigan's record crowd at Springfield was 10,000 when they beat Widnes on 19 March 1902. The last game was on 28 April 1902 when Wigan beat the Rest of Lancashire Senior Competition. Two meetings were held by Wigan members during the season to discuss the possibility of turning the club into a Limited Company but the idea did not take off.
1902–1945: Move to Central Park and Wartime Emergency League
On 6 September 1902, Wigan played at Central Park for the first time in the opening match of the newly formed First Division. An estimated crowd of 9,000 spectators saw Wigan beat Batley 14–8.
In the 1905–06 season they won their first cup, in rugby league, the Lancashire County Cup. Between 1906 and 1923 Wigan won the Lancashire League another seven times and the Lancashire Cup another four times. Wigan were the first winners of the Lancashire cup.
Wigan played New Zealand on 9 November 1907 and ran out winners by 12 points to 8 in front of a crowd of around 30,000. Great Britain, then known as the Northern Union, played their first-ever test against New Zealand on 25 January 1908. James "Jim" Leytham, Bert Jenkins and John "Johnny" Thomas of Wigan were in the home side and Leytham scored a try. Jenkins and Thomas had previously played in the first Welsh game against New Zealand on 1 January 1908.
On Saturday 28 October 1911, Wigan played a match against the Australasian team which visited England on the 1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and won.
On 12 May 1921, Wigan became a limited company.
In June 1922 Jim Sullivan joined Wigan from Cardiff RFC when he was only 17. His cash value was put at £750, which was a staggering signing-on fee for an adolescent who had not yet played 13-a-side rugby (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £137,700 in 2015). His first game was at home against Widnes on 27 August 1921, and he scored ten points in a 21–0 win. Almost inevitably, Jim Sullivan scored the first points in the first Challenge Cup Final to be played at Wembley Stadium, kicking a penalty after only three minutes of the inaugural Challenge Cup Final against Dewsbury in 1929 in which he led Wigan to a 13–2 victory. Sullivan became player-coach in 1932.
Wigan won their first Challenge Cup in the 1923–24 season when they beat Oldham 21–4 in Rochdale.
In 1933 the Prince of Wales attended Central Park, becoming the first royal to watch a rugby league match.
On 25 October 1938 Australian Harry Sunderland arrived in Wigan to take up the duties of Secretary-Manager at Central Park. On 28 September the following year, Sunderland's contract was terminated and he and the club parted company.
The outbreak of World War II disrupted the Rugby Football League Championship but Wigan continued to play in the Lancashire War League and the Emergency War League.
During the war years the club went through the 1940–41 season unbeaten although they lost the Championship final. They lost the 1944 Challenge Cup Final over two games to Bradford Northern 8–3 but made up for it beating Dewsbury in the Championship Final.
1945–1980: Post war era Jim Sullivan's last game, as a player, for Wigan was at Mount Pleasant, Batley, on 23 February 1946. He remained at Central Park for another six seasons as coach.
In 1948 Wigan took part in the first televised rugby league match when their 8–3 Challenge Cup Final victory over Bradford Northern was broadcast to the Midlands. In another first this was the first rugby league match to be attended by the reigning monarch, King George VI, who presented the trophy.
On Saturday 27 October 1951, 33,230 spectators saw Wigan beat Leigh 14–6 in the final of the Lancashire Cup at Station Road, Swinton. In 1952 Wigan won their sixth consecutive Lancashire Cup.
Wigan were also featured in the first league match to be broadcast, a clash with Wakefield Trinity at Central Park on 12 January 1952.
In 1953 Wigan signed Billy Boston for £150. 8,000 fans saw Billy Boston début for Wigan in the 'A' team. He later became one of the most successful and famous Wigan players of all time. Eric Ashton signed for Wigan for £150 in 1955. Wigan went to Wembley six times in the Boston / Ashton era and won three times.
The visit of St. Helens on 27 March 1959 produced Central Park's all-time record attendance of 47,747 which is still a record for any rugby league game in Lancashire. Wigan went on to win the game 19–14 after holding off a Saints comeback. Mick Sullivan moved to Wigan for a then-record £9,500 fee in 1957.
Joe Egan returned to coach Wigan and during his time they won the Championship play-off final in 1960 defeating Wakefield Trinity 21–5, the Challenge Cup in 1958, 1959, 13–9 against Workington Town and 30–13 against Hull F.C. respectively before losing in 12–6 to St. Helens in 1961 which was to be his last game in charge.
Wigan continued to have regular success in both league and cup competitions until 1974, when the club went eight seasons without winning any leagues or cups.