Wakefield Trinity Wildcats can trace their roots back to 1873 when they were formed at the Holy Trinity Church (hence Wakefield Trinity). They are seen as one of the leading and most pioneering forces in rugby, and have had the honour of winning the Yorkshire Cup four times in a nine year period. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century there were many large and prestigious clubs in Wakefield including Alverthorpe and the Wakefield Thornes, however Wakefield Trinity were able to muscle any competition out of their way to rise to the top of the local league tables. The club has moved grounds many times, initially playing at Heath Common, but moving to Manor Field for one season in 1875 and then to Elm Street for one more season, before settling at Belle Vue in 1879.

The Wakefield Trinity are one of the founding members of the Northern Union after 22 teams left the Rugby Football Union in 1895 over a pay dispute. The club was able to purchase the Belle Vue ground for itself in 1895 with the view of using it as a permanent home ground. This was in part subsidised by the Wakefield Athletic Club and the ground was also used for cycling and athletics events on a regular basis, although it rarely interferred with the rugby matches that were held at the ground. Wakefield Trinity's first major victory was in 1909 when they head Hull 17-0 in the final of the Northern Union Challenge Cup. Unfortunately the period around the first world war was not kind to Wakefield and the team only managed to take one Yorkshire Cup, but lost four in this time period.

The following years were again not very kind to Wakefield Trinity, witht hem loosing to Bradford Northern in the final of the Yorkshire Cup in 1945 even though they began the match as clear favourites to win and had only lost one out of thirteen matches played that season. The first Wembley final after the war allowed Wakefield Trinity to rise to the top once again as they beat Wigan to the Cup in a nail biting 13-12 victory. They then went on to defeat Keighley in the Yorkshire Cup Final, but it would not be until 1960 when the club finally returned to Wembley, although they did pick up two Yorkshire Cups and two Yorkshire League victories in the 1950's. This triumphant return to Wembley saw Wakefield beat Hull 38-5. Wakefield also had the honour of being one of the first teams (along with Wigan) to appear on television in the first league match to be broadcast live in 1952.

Whilst the team were able to defend the Cup in 1963 they were still fighting to achieve a league championship title. They were finally able to make this happen in the 1966-1967 season when they were able to defeat Saints in a replay match. They were then able to go on to a repeat performance against Hull Kingston Rovers but were denied the double when they lost to Leeds in 1968 at Wembley. Modern times have been just as rocky for Wakefield; they were excluded from the Super League when they refused to merge with Castleford and Featherstone Rovers to form a new club that was to be known as Calder. Fortunately the team took victory over Featherstone Rovers in the Division One Grand Final in 1998 and were accepted into the Super League, after hearing the good news they adopted the Wildcats monikor becoming known as Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (or more commonly just the Wakefield Wildcats). The Wildcats finished next to bottom in most of their attempts at the Super League however a change of head coach in 2002 saw Wakefield storm into their first ever play off position finishing in sixth place, an all time high for the team. Wakefield went on to avoid relegation by beating Castleford 29-17 in 2006 to preserve their reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the Super League, the match was attended by a sell out crowd of 11,000 people.