This was the thirteenth season of the rugby league League Cup, which was this season known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship reasons.

Leeds won the trophy, beating Widnes by the score of 18-10 in the final. The match was played at Central Park, Wigan and the attendance was 9,510. The gate receipts were £19824.

This season saw one change in the entrants, Kent Invicta joined the league and also the competition, the number of entrants now rising to thirty-four
The preliminary round now increased to two matches and involved four clubs, to reduce the numbers of entrants to the first round proper to thirty-two
Unfortunately, early in the season Bramley went into administration, and although they survived, during this period of administration they withdrew from this competition, leaving Hull Kingston Rovers with a bye in the first round.

^[1][2]

1 * This match had been chosen for Saturday BBC coverage but was cancelled and moved to Sunday at two days notice due to Industrial Action at the BBC^[2]
2 * Kent Invicta's record crowd
3 * 3 dropped goals
4 * Bramley withdrew from this competition while in liquidation^[12][13]
5 * highest score (and highest away score) o date between two professional clubs
6 * Wigan official archives^[10] state the home team are Leigh, an obvious printing error as earlier in the same fixture list Leigh are away at CarlisleCarlisle
7 * Central Park was the home ground of Wigan with a final capacity of 18,000, although the record attendance was 47,747 for Wigan v St Helens 27 March 1959

• 1983–84 Rugby Football League season
• 1983 Lancashire Cup
• 1983 Yorkshire Cup
• John Player Special Trophy
• Rugby league county cups