In 1896, Wingate University began as The Wingate School, a primary and secondary institution founded by the Baptist Associations of Union County, North Carolina, and Chesterfield County, South Carolina, in response to a dearth of locally-available public schools.

In 1923, the school began offering the first two years of a baccalaureate education and became Wingate Junior College.

The Baptist State Convention resumed financial support in 1949, and Charles Cannon, a local businessman and philanthropist, began making substantial donations to the college beginning in the 1950s.

The college continued to grow, especially under the leadership of Jerry McGee, added graduate programs, and became Wingate University in 1995.

[5] Wingate also has campuses located in Hendersonville, NC, home to graduate programs in pharmacy and physician assistant studies, and Ballantyne, North Carolina.

In 2009, the schools gained autonomy from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and established a “good faith and cooperative” relationship with it.

[11] In 2021, the men's baseball team defeated Central Missouri 5–3 to capture their first national championship.

[12] In 2023, the men's cross country team won the NCAA Division II national championship.