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 problems and an inability to recruit quality players led to the club amalgamating with Upholland F.C. 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 of Frog Lane. It is unlikely that the club fulfilled its fixtures in 1877 beand disbanded at the end of the 1879 cricket season.
On 22 September 1879, the club was reformed as Wigan Wasps by members of the original Wigan Football Club at a meeting in the Dicconson Arms. The club moved back to Folly Field. In 1884, Wigan won its first trophy, the West Lancashire Cup. The club initially played in blue and white hooped jerseys before changing in 1886 to cherry and white hoops. In 1888 the club hosted and beat a touring New Zealand side.
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.
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.
Read more about this topic: History Of Wigan Warriors
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