Early years In 1876,
Oldham Football Club was founded in a meeting at the Prince Albert Hotel, Union Street West, attended by Chairman of the
Watch Committee, William Chadwick,
Chief Constable Charles Hodgkinson, mill owner Fred Wild, eminent local
Quaker and Lord to be
Alfred Emmott and three brothers of the Fletcher family. A playing field was organised at Sugar Meadow, Gartside Street adjacent to
Glodwick Spinning Mill and changing facilities were provided by the nearby Shakespeare Inn. The club's headquarters were at the Black Swan Hotel, Bottom O'th Moor, Mumps. Their first match at Sugar Meadow was held on 21 October 1876 against
Stalybridge. After two seasons they joined
Oldham Cricket Club at the new Clarksfield ground before finding a more permanent home in 1889 at
Watersheddings. Oldham were one of the twenty-one clubs that left the
Rugby Football Union to form the
Northern Union in 1895. Oldham were fourth in the first title race of
1895–96 and second a year later. They were the second club to win the
Challenge Cup after beating
Hunslet 19–9 in 1899.
Batley had won the first two finals. Oldham finally won their first
Championship title in 1904–05, just edging out
Bradford Northern by three points. Oldham won the Lancashire League in 1897–98, 1900–01 and 1907–08 as well as the
Lancashire County Cup in 1906–07. In the 1907–08 season, Oldham finished as league leaders but Hunslet were crowned champions in their historic all-four cups season after winning the Championship Final 12–2 in a replay after an initial 7–7 draw. Another title success followed in 1909–10 as they beat
Wigan in the Championship final. Also in that same season they managed to win the Lancashire League and Lancashire Cup. The following season, 1910–11, they beat Wigan again in the Championship final. Oldham's record attendance was set in 1912 when the visit of
Huddersfield for a league match drew 28,000 spectators. Oldham won the Lancashire League in 1921–22 and the Lancashire Cup in 1912–13, 1918–19 and 1923–24. The annual Law Cup was first contested against neighbours
Rochdale Hornets on 7 May 1921. Having lost in the 1907, 1912 and 1924
Challenge Cup Finals, they finally won the trophy again in 1925 when they beat
Hull Kingston Rovers 16–3 at
Headingley,
Leeds. They beat the visiting
Australasian team of the
1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain 15–5. The club's last Challenge Cup final was in 1927 when they beat
Swinton 26–7 at
Central Park,
Wigan, their fourth consecutive final and revenge for their 9–3 defeat when the same teams met in the previous year's match. In 1932–33, Oldham won the Lancashire Cup again.
Post-war In the 1950s, Oldham won the Championship and other trophies with a side that included
Alan Davies,
John Etty, goalkicker
Bernard Ganley, Jack Keith,
Sid Little,
Frank Pitchford,
Derek 'Rocky' Turner,
Don Vines and
Charlie Winslade. On Monday 15 September 1952, record receipts were taken from a gate of 19,370 at Watersheddings to watch Oldham take on the
Kangaroo tourists. The Australians lost only one of twenty-two club matches in Britain during that tour, but came close to defeat at Oldham, where the Roughyeds held them to a 7–7 draw. Oldham played in the 1954–55 Championship Final at
Maine Road, Manchester against
Warrington. They also lost the Lancashire Cup final in a 2–12 defeat by
Barrow in 1954. Oldham's success in the 1950s also included a Championship title – in 1956–57; the Lancashire League 1956–57 and 1957–58 and the Lancashire Cup 1955–56, 1956–57 and 1957–58. Oldham lost 16–13 to Wigan in the 1966 Lancashire Cup Final. In 1964, Oldham reached the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup against
Hull Kingston Rovers, the tie is remembered for taking three games to find the winner, the first match at Headingley finished 5–5, the replay at
Station Road,
Swinton finished prematurely 17–14 in Oldham's favour when the game was abandoned midway through the second half due to bad light, and the third game was won by Hull Kingston Rovers 12–2 at
Fartown,
Huddersfield. Oldham were Division Two champions in 1963–64. At the end of a disastrous 1969–70 season, when Oldham finished 29th out of 30 clubs in a single division, the committee was voted out of office en bloc and replaced by nine new officials and a new chairman in Arthur Walker. They brought in Graham Starkey as player-coach.
Dave Cox coached Oldham for 18 months until December 1978. In the 1983–84 season, Oldham lost just two of their opening 11 Division One fixtures but collapsed around Christmas. After four defeats in five games, January's home game against
Leigh descended into a mass brawl before the referee abandoned the match. Both clubs were fined £1,000 and coach Peter Smethurst decided to quit. The club committee asked his assistant, Frank Barrow to step into the breach. His first game was against rock-bottom
Whitehaven, winless after 22 matches. But the Cumbrians ran in seven tries, handing Oldham a 42–8 mauling, and prompting
Barrow to resign minutes after the game. He was replaced on a temporary basis by Brian Gartland. Oldham pleaded with the local council for a financial bail-out in April 1987. Oldham decided to float as a public limited company and sold their training ground to the council in May 1987. Oldham won the 1988 Division Two title and the Division Two Premiership but lost £135,000. They would win the Premiership again in 1989–90.
Peter Tunks took over a coaching role with Oldham. Tunk's brief was clear: He had to sell most of his first team squad that had been relegated twice in 3 years, help to pay a tax bill of over 1 million pounds and sign promising players from the junior ranks. He narrowly missed promotion in the first year and took the team to the grand final where they were narrowly beaten. Over the next 2 years he got promotion to the top level for all the Oldham teams whilst getting young players like Chris Joynt, Barrie McDermott, David Bradbury, Gary Christie and Tommy Martyn to international level but due to the clubs massive debts run up by the previous management, Tunks was forced to sell his best players.
Bob Lindner took over as captain-coach. The club sold the dilapidated Watersheddings in June 1994 for £1.25m to pay-off debts and moved to
Oldham Athletic's
Boundary Park stadium on the nearby
Chadderton/
Royton boundary. When a
Rupert Murdoch funded Super League competition was proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Oldham were supposed to merge with
Salford to form a club to be known as
Manchester which would compete in the
Super League. When Salford visited Oldham for a match on Good Friday, 14 April, supporters of both clubs demonstrated against the unpopular idea by invading the pitch during the interval. This merger was resisted and instead they adopted the name
Oldham Bears and were founder members of the new league. Relegation came in the second year of the new summer season, 1997, when they finished below
Paris Saint-Germain. At campaign's end, an attempt was made by chairman Jim Quinn to sell the team for an undisclosed price tag, with debts reportedly between £500,000 and £1,000,000. Instead, the club went bankrupt soon after, with its actual liabilities pegged at £2,000,000. A new team
Oldham Roughyeds was then formed in December to play at a lower level. The new club was created by Chris Hamilton and a band of three directors. The
Roughyeds tag had been a long accepted nickname for the old club. It is however generally accepted that the new club (Oldham Roughyeds) is a legal continuation of the old club formed in 1876.
The Millennium Mike Ford retired as player-coach of Oldham in 2001 and in January the following year took up a post as defensive co-ordinator with the
Irish Rugby Football Union. Oldham put Mark Knight in temporary charge of the first team. After a successful 2001 season, they narrowly missed out on promotion to the Super League, losing to
Widnes 12–24 in the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final. During the 2002 season they played at
Ashton United's
Hurst Cross ground in
Ashton-under-Lyne, due to a dispute with
Oldham Athletic over the use of
Boundary Park. Steve Molloy took charge of the Roughyeds after former boss John Harbin left to join
Oldham Athletic as fitness conditioner and sports psychologist in July 2002. Under Molloy, Oldham won seven and drew two of their last 14 games. In doing so Oldham finished high enough to gain entry into
National League One when the
Northern Ford Premiership was split into two. In the first season of
National League One, 2003, Oldham reached the last four of the play-offs. Although they still made the play-offs for the next couple of seasons trouble was waiting in the wings. Those troubles surfaced in March 2005, Oldham entered a creditors' voluntary agreement (CVA) with total debts of £325,000.
2007 – new ownership In 2007, a few games into the new season, the excavation and demolition firm, the William Quinn Group, acquired a 52% stake in the club. That stake was later increased to 75%. Bill Quinn became the club's new chairman, with previous owners Chris Hamilton and Sean Whitehead remaining as directors. On Friday 4 May 2007, Oldham took part in the first ever
National League Two match broadcast live on British television, on
Sky Sports. They won 34–26 away to the
Crusaders in
Bridgend, having trailed by 20 points after 45 minutes. The match was considered a warm-up for the
Millennium Magic weekend in
Cardiff the following day and, due to fans of Super League teams attending, attracted
National League Two's highest ever attendance of 3,441. That
National League Two attendance record was broken in the return fixture on Thursday, 30 August 2007 between Oldham and
Crusaders, again in front of the
Sky Sports cameras, when 4,327 fans turned up at
Boundary Park beating the old record by 886. it was also Oldham's largest attendance since the early 1990s. The event also raised around £8,000 for local charities and the rugby league players' benevolent fund. Oldham finished their most successful season in recent years in 4th place on the
National League Two table, they then played and won games against
Swinton at home then
Barrow away in the play-off to reach the
National League Two Grand Final, but the game seemed a step too far for Oldham going down to an inspired
Featherstone Rovers team at Headingley.
2008 season summary Northern Rail Cup – Oldham enjoyed reasonable success in the Northern Rail Cup, achieving a win over
National League One favourites,
Salford at
Boundary Park to enable them to make it through the group stage of the competition into the knockout stages where they faced and beat another
National League One team in
Whitehaven to progress to the quarter finals against
Batley at
Mount Pleasant, in a see-saw battle Oldham's challenge died thanks to a dubious referee call followed up by a quick fire Batley try.
Challenge Cup – Oldham were the last non-Super League club to be knocked out of the
2008 Challenge Cup, going as far as the quarter finals before being beaten by
Wakefield Trinity at
Belle Vue.
National League Two – Despite winning more games and losing less games than
Barrow but only winning 1 bonus point (to Barrow's 5 points) all season Oldham finished 3rd in
National League Two on points difference behind Barrow who came 2nd and
Gateshead who won the league, Oldham would again have to face the route of the play-offs and like the previous year Oldham again reached the
National League Two Grand Final, this time against
Doncaster and like 2007 Oldham again lost to miss out on promotion to
National League One losing 18–10 at Warrington's
Halliwell Jones Stadium, as a result of not gaining promotion to
National League One coach Steve Deakin did not have his contract renewed.
2009 season summary Tony Benson became head coach of Oldham.
2009 Championship 1 – Oldham finished fourth in the 2009 Co-operative Championship One table with a record of 10–1–7. The Roughyeds won 31–26 at home to
Swinton in the first round of the play-offs before winning 54–30 at home to
Hunslet Hawks. That set up a final eliminator against
York City Knights, who finished third in the table, and the Roughyeds upset the hosts by winning 44–14 to reach the Grand Final again. But Oldham were beaten in the Grand Final for a third straight year, losing 28–26 to
Keighley, who finished second in the table. Roughyeds were told they would no longer be able to use Oldham Athletic's
Boundary Park in November 2009. The club went to Oldham Council for help. Oldham Council bought Whitebank Stadium from
Oldham Boro F.C. and then entered into a lease agreement with Oldham Roughyeds RLFC. The 2010 season saw a transition with the five home games were played out of town at
Sedgley Park R.U.F.C.'s
Park Lane ground in
Whitefield. Roughyeds' first game at Whitebank took place on 9 May 2010 with the opposition being York. This was the first time that Oldham had played in a ground within Oldham borough since 1997. Home crowds are nearly double at Whitebank compared to Park Lane.
2010s Oldham suffered relegation to League 1 at the end of the 2017 Championship season. In 2019, they earned promotion back to the Championship after defeating
Newcastle in the League 1 play off final.
2020s In the 2021 Championship season, Oldham finished second from bottom of the table and were relegated back to League 1 having won only two matches. Their top points scorer was
Martyn Ridyard with 96 points scored. In the 2022 League 1 season, Oldham finished sixth with a record of 8 wins, 1 draw, 11 losses and lost in the Play Off Q+E (qualification and elimination) round against
Rochdale Hornets 38-24. Their top points scorer was
Martyn Ridyard with 161 points In the
2023 RFL League 1 season, Oldham finished fourth with a record of 12 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. In the Qualifying & Elimination play-offs they lost 36-0 to
Doncaster and lost 13-12 to
North Wales Crusaders in the semi-finals. Their top points scorer was
Martyn Ridyard with 163 points. The club returned to Boundary Park in August. In the
2024 RFL League One season, Oldham won the league and were automatically promoted to
RFL Championship with a record of 19 wins, 0 draws, 1 loss and a points difference of +741. Their top points scorer was Cian Tyrer with 140 points scored. In their first season back in the championship, Oldham enjoyed a strong year finishing 4th on the table and qualified for the playoffs. The club's start to the
2026 season was marred by a dispute with
Oldham Athletic over the ground-sharing agreement covering the club's use of Boundary Park. The dispute saw matches moved to
Bower Fold in Stalybridge and the club chairman, Bill Quinn, banned from Boundary Park. Oldham Athletic denied all the claims. ==Past coaches==