The club was founded in 1883 as TV Hamm, and the first football team was formed in 1908. In 1916, that team left the club and founded the independent club 1. FC Einigkeit Hamm, which soon went out of business, so the footballers returned to TV. However, in the 1920s they were again forced to leave the club and form Sportfreunde Hamm. This club also went out of business in 1935, so the footballers returned to TV again, this time permanently. The club then changed its name to VfL Hamm, but the football team had to start from the lowest tier of the competition. During World War II, the team withdrew from the competition, but played again in 1945. The greatest achievement in that period was the placement in the fourth rank, the 2. Amateurliga, between 1957 and 1962, after which it fell again to the lower leagues.

In 1978, VfL Hamm won promotion to the top league of the Rheinland Football Association - the Verbandsliga Rheinland (today the Rheinlandliga). The club struggled for the first two seasons, but progressed and won the title in 1982. This earned him a place in the third tier, the Oberliga Südwest, but he finished last and was immediately relegated. He was the vice-champion of the Verbandsliga in 1984, and the following year he won the title again and returned to the Oberliga. In that period, the club made its first appearance in the German Cup, where in 1981 it lost 4-6 after extra time to the amateur club Urania Hamburg.

For the next eighteen seasons, VfL Hamm played in the Oberliga Südwest. The league was initially the third tier, but in 1994 it became fourth when the Regionalliga were introduced. For the first four seasons, the club finished in the upper part of the table, and in 1987 it was third. In the 1985/86 and 1986/87 seasons, he won the Rheinland Cup, which earned him a place in the first round of the German Cup. There he lost to FC Gütersloh on penalties in 1986, and in 1987 to KSV Hessen Kassel with 2-7. Between 1989 and 1995, the club mostly fought for survival.

After 1995, a better period followed - seven seasons in the upper part of the table. The most successful period was between 1998 and 2001, when he was twice the vice-champion of the league (2000 and 2001) and won two more cups (1999 and 2000). He also participated in the first round of the DFB-Pokal in 1999 and 2000, but lost to Stuttgarter Kickers and Energie Cottbus.

From 2001, the club entered a serious decline - eighth place in 2002, and sixteenth in 2003, which meant relegation. He was once again runner-up in the Rheinlandliga in 2004, and fourth the following year. However, in 2005 he finished last, and the following season he could not even form a team. The club fell to the seventh tier, Kreisliga A, and then continued to sink through the lower leagues. The 2007/08 season ended third from the back, losing all 26 games, with only 8 goals scored and as many as 138 goals conceded. The following season was only marginally better - again the last, but with one win and five draws.

The lowest moment was in 2009/10, when they played in the tenth tier, Kreisliga C. Since then, they managed to recover and return to the seventh tier, Bezirksliga. They were relegated again in 2014, but won the Kreisliga A title the following season and won promotion in 2015.