Workington Town were not founded until 1944 but it did not take them long to make their mark on the rugby league world.

By 1951 they were League champions as Gus Risman built a side able to compete with the best, defeating Warrington in the final at Manchester, and a year later he led Town to the Challenge Cup, their 18-10 win over Featherstone Rovers being the first final to be televised.

In 1955 and 1958 Workington were back at Wembley for further Challenge Cup finals but they were beaten on both occasions, first by Barrow 21-12 and then by Wigan 13-9, and in 1958 also lost in the Championship final.
Further final misery was to follow in the 1970s, when Workington appeared in four consecutive Lancashire Cup finals between 1976-77 and 1979-80, but they won only one - in 1977-78 when they beat Wigan. In the other three they lost to Widnes.

Workington then went into decline in the 1980s and early 1990s, and it wasn't until 1993 that their fortunes started to change.

Although they lost to Featherstone in the Second Division Premiership final that year, they made amends the following year by winning the Second Division Leaders' Trophy and beating London Broncos in the Premiership final

That achievement qualified them for the inaugural Super League in 1996, but they were relegated after just one season, managing just two wins in the whole campaign, and in 2002 were relegated to National League Two.