The Huddersfield Giants can trace their roots back to 1864, and are one of the oldest rugby teams in the country. The club shares their current home, the Galpharm Stadium, with Huddersfield Town FC. The earliest recorded example of a football match being played in the Huddersfield area is in 1848 when Hepworth played against Holmfirth; the former team won and the victors won the princely sum of £5. Whilst there may have been many other informal matches there is no recorded structure to support the sport in the Huddersfield area until the Apollo Gymnasium was opened in 1850.

The earliest record of a football match being played in the Huddersfield area is in 1848, when a team of men from Hepworth took on a team of men from Holmfirth near Whinney Bank in Holmfirth. Hepworth won a close fought game which "exhibited the usual amount of confusions, bloody noses, etc" and took the prize of £5 which had been jointly donated by each side. Until the opening of the Apollo Gymnasium in 1850 there was no formal structure in place to organise any games so any other matches that took place will have been strictly informal. Unfortunately the Gymnasium was later turned into a Theatre which left no room for training or organised sports of any kind in Huddersfield and West Yorkshire. Fortunately a meeting took place in 1864 that called for "gentlemen desirous of becoming members" to attend, one-hundred names were petitioned and a commitee was formed. Within the space of a month a new gymnasium was opened in a small basement. The first real organised sports events too place in 1866 when the Huddersfield Athletic Club agreed to play a friendly football match against the Huddersfield Rifle Corps. The game resulted in a scoreless draw but the idea was firmly cemented in the people of Huddersfields minds, thanks to the success of the game the Huddersfield Athletic Club decided to start a true football section that would begin playing in 1866. The football club grew in size and stature and in 1869 six matches were played, whilst in 1870 the club had the honour of having three if its members selected to represent Yorkshire in national competitions. By 1872 the concept had become so popular that a second team was formed to fit in all of the players who wished to take part. The Huddersfield Athletic Club approached St John's Cricket Club with a proposal for a merge between the two clubs, in 1875 things were finalised and the Huddersfield Cricket and Athletics Club was formed. They initially used the Fartown Ground from 1878, this ground would be the clubs home for the next 114 years and is the original of the "Fartown" nickname that is often bandied around.

In 1895 the club were one of the founding members of the Northern Rugby Football Union that would later evolve into the Rugby Football League. In it's many years as a professional rugby team the team has seen many changes of fortune but they are rivalled only by Wigan in terms of trophies won. In 1908 Huddersfield beat the Kangaroos 5-3 and from then on their reputation would be cemeted in rugby folklore. Around the time of the first world war the team experienced something of a revelation as the team was made up of players from across the British Empire and were colloquially known as the "team of all talents". In the five years leading up to the first world war they won a massive 13 trophies, a figure unmatched by any other team. In 1914-1915 they had the privilige of becoming the second team to win the Championship, the Challenge Cup, the Yorkshire Cup and the Yorkshire League in one season. For 38 matches Huddersfield remained completely unbeaten until the league was suspended in 1914 due to the outbreak of the war. Unfortunately after the war Huddersfield found it hard to climb to the top as they had used to and it was not until the 1960's that they saw any major success.

The club went through something of a rough patch during the 1970's and in 1984 thanks to the help of local buisnessman John Bailey the club was revived somewhat under the pseudonym "Barracudas" and Fartown was renamed to Arena 84. These new names were dropped when it was confirmed that they were not very successful with the fans and the team continued as Huddersfield in the 1988 season. In 1991 the club saw a major revival and Huddersfield became the first ever champions of the new third division. After promotion to the second division the club moved to Huddersfield Town A.F.C's ground at Leeds Road in 1992 before they purchased a major share in the McAlpine Stadium in the same year. When the team chairman was changed in 1996 Huddersfield added the Giants moniker to their title.

In 1998 the Huddersfield Giants were invited to attend the Super League and the club merged with the Sheffield Eagles in 1999 for financial reasons. They were quickly nicknamed "Shuddersfield" by the fans and the arrangement only lasted a short time before the team reverted to using the Huddersfield name. The team experienced a hard time of it and lost 81 out of 99 games between 1998 and 2001 but they managed to avoid relegation until the end of 2001. The team was invited back into the Super League in 2003 after an unbeaten season where they drew only one match and won an astounding twenty-nine games. The clubs fortunes have continued to grow with Huddersfield finishing 10th in 2003 and becoming firmly established as a Super League team, making several high profile signings in 2005 and having a bumper season in 2006 including their best performance of modern times.