The Panther had been chosen as the Penrith emblem after a public competition won by a graphic artist from Emu Plains named Deidre Copeland.
In 1966 word was out that the New South Wales Rugby Football League would introduce two new teams to the Sydney premiership for the 1967 season.
The first premiership team was: Bill Tonkin, Bob Landers, David Applebee, Ern Gillon, Wayne Peckham, Maurie Raper, Laurie Fagan, Tony Brown (captain), Wal Crust, Bill McCall, Geoff Waldie, Barry Harris and Ron Workman.
On 23 April 1967 Penrith Park was officially opened with a match between the Panthers and the reigning premiers, St George.
Unable to attract local players, in mid 1973 Penrith looked overseas and signed the Great Britain internationals Mike Stephenson and Bill Ashurst for the 1974 season.
Ashurst in particular was a brilliant player on his day, he had great acceleration, could chip and chase and was also the first person to use the "around the corner" style of goalkicking in Australia, months before John Gray demonstrated this in the 1974 Test series.
Players such as Kevin Dann, Ross Gigg, Phil Gould, Paul Merlo, Zac Olejarnik, Tim Sheens, Glenn West, and Terry Wickey showed great potential and it is interesting to think what could have happened if they had the right sort of on-field leadership and direction.
They seemed assured of making history but at the most critical time of the season suffered a drop in form, winning only one of their last four games.
Their joy was short lived however as they were comprehensively defeated 38-6 by a star-studded Parramatta team the following weekend in the qualifying final.
The late 1980s saw the first grade debut of future stars such as Mark Geyer, John Cartwright, Steve Carter and Brad Fittler.
Added to now established veterans such as Greg Alexander, Brad Izzard and Royce Simmons, a team was starting to develop that finally lived up to the potential of a club with the biggest junior league nursery in the world.
Former player and now Football Manager, Ross Gigg, made what some have regarded as the best ever signings in Penrith's history prior to the 1988 season.
[1] Established stars Peter Kelly and Chris Mortimer were signed along with a new coach, the veteran Ron Willey.
With a team boasting notable players such as Greg Alexander, Brad Fittler, Chris Mortimer and Mark Geyer Penrith were clearly overawed by the occasion, but they had their chances and were somewhat unlucky to be beaten by the Canberra Raiders 18–14.
The next year the Panthers were Minor Premiers and met the Raiders again in the Grand Final, this time winning 19 to 12, including two tries by Royce Simmons the former team captain in his last game.
[2] Their reign was short lived as in 1992 tragedy struck the club when the younger brother of Captain Greg Alexander, Ben, died in a car accident in late June.
Penrith's form had been very good in 1992 up to this point, they had comprehensively beaten eventual premiers Brisbane 24–10 in round 4 at Lang Park, one of only two home losses they suffered that year, and were firmly entrenched in the top 3, having won 9 of their 13 games.
Coming off 3 early season losses, they proceeded to lose only 3 other games for the rest of the competition with the local hero, Rhys Wesser scoring a new club record 25 tries.
The game is also remembered for a spectacular tackle by Scott Sattler in the 2nd Half Roosters winger Todd Byrne, who was sprinting down the left wing for an almost certain try.
Panthers signings for this year included Adrian Purtell, Nigel Plum, Daine Laurie, Dave Simmons and Sandor Earl.
In July 2011, Ivan Cleary signed a 3-year contract to join Penrith as first grade coach from season 2012.
[6] A playing roster overhaul saw the arrival of big name players such as Jamie Soward, Peter Wallace, Jamal Idris, Tyrone Peachey and Elijah Taylor at Penrith, while Matt Moylan took the vacant fullback role left by the departed Lachlan Coote.
[10][11] In 2018, Penrith finished 5th on the table at the end of the regular season during which coach Anthony Griffin was sacked four weeks before the finals series after falling out with Phil Gould.
Penrith got off to a bad start with the club winning only 2 of their first 10 matches leaving the team bottom of the table.
[16] At the start of the 2021 NRL season, Penrith became the first team in Rugby League History to win their opening two games without conceding a point as they beat North Queensland 24-0 and then defeated Canterbury 28-0.