As of the 2022–23 school year, the school had an enrollment of 942 students and 60.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.6:1. There were 567 students (60.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 12 (1.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]
The school was the 328th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology.[4] The school had been ranked 294th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 305th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[5] The magazine ranked the school 291st in 2008 out of 316 schools.[6] The school was ranked 279th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[7]
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 342nd out of 409 public high schools statewide in its 2014 rankings that were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[8]
The original Lincoln High School opened in 1913, with an inaugural student body of 300 on a site acquired from the Hasbrouck Institute, a private school. The city's second public high school, it was intended to address the growth in enrollment at present-day William L. Dickinson High School.[9] In January 1916, the school graduated its first class of 32 students. In 1934, the school had an enrollment of 5,000 students, making it the second largest in the state.[10]
The Lincoln High School Lions[2] compete in the Hudson County Interscholastic League, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Hudson County.[12] The league operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[13] With 493 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range.[14] The football team competes in the National Red division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league.[15][16] The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group III North for football for 2022–2024, which included schools with 680 to 884 students.[17]
The boys track team won the public school indoor track state championship in 1940 and 1948, won the Group II title in 1969 and won the Group III title in 1970, 1971 (as co-champion), 1974; the program's seven state titles are tied for ninth in the state.[18] The girls team was the all-group co-champion in 1979.[19]
The boys track team won the Group IV spring / outdoor track state championship in 1941 and won the Group II title in 1970.[20]
The boys track team won the Group III indoor relay championships in 1967, 1968 and 1969, won in the combined Group I/II in 1970 and 1974, and won in Group III in 1976. The six state championships are tied for seventh-most among the state's high schools.[21]
The 1981 football team finished the season with a 9-2 record after winning the NJSIAA North I Group III state sectional title with a 22-14 victory against Lakeland Regional High School in the championship game.[22][23] In 2009 the Lions finished the season at 8–2, losing in the first round of the NJSIAA North II Group I state playoffs. In 2010, the Lions built on their wave of success, going 7-2 during the regular season, the Lions went back to the playoffs. Their regular season highlight was erasing an 18–0 deficit to Hoboken High School to win 42–18. In the 2010 NJSIAA North II Group I playoffs, the Lions defeated Glen Ridge High School 36–19, and Jonathan Dayton High School 42-14 all on the road to advance to the North II Group I sectional championship game against New Providence High School, losing by a score of 21–8 at New Meadowlands Stadium.[24][25] The Lions went on to the NJSIAA state championship final losing by a score 36-28 vs. Mountain Lakes High School in 2014 in the North II Group II final[26] and lost 28-26 vs. Raritan High School in 2015 on a touchdown scored with seconds left in the Central Jersey Group II finals.[27] the head coach of the Lincoln Lions is Robert Hampton, who has been the team's coach since the 2005–06 season.[28]
The boys' basketball team won the North I, Group III state sectional championship in 2002 with a 50–41 win against Sparta High School in the tournament final.[29] The 2006–07 team won the HCIAA championship over now defunct Union Hill High School, winning by a score of 50–46. The 2008 team won the North II, Group II state sectional title with a 61–58 win over Orange High School in the tournament final.[30][31] In 2008, the basketball team went on to win the school's first Group II state title with an 88–70 victory against Collingswood High School.[32][33]
The girls basketball team won the North II Group II sectional championship in 2019, becoming the first public school team for Jersey City to win a sectional title, with a 43-41 win over Secaucus High School.[34] The girls basketball team was declared as the North II regional champion in 2020, after the finals were cancelled due to COVID.[35]
^Lincoln High School, New Jersey City University. Accessed March 24, 2021. "Lincoln High School was named for the sixteenth president of the United States and opened in 1913. It became the second public high school in Jersey City and was started to accommodate the overcrowded conditions in the City High School (now Dickinson High School)."
^Biography, Lincoln High School, backed up by the Internet Archive as of September 6, 2008. Accessed March 24, 2021. "By 1934, Lincoln High School had an enrollment of more than 5000 students and a faculty of some 140 men and women. At that time Lincoln was the second largest school in New Jersey, and its academic rating was considered to be one of the highest in the state."
^"Seton Hall Prep Downs Bergen Catholic", The New York Times, December 6, 1981. Accessed January 11, 2021. "Paul Chisolm, a senior quarterback, and John Griggs hooked up for three touchdown passes and led Lincoln (9-2) to a 22-14 victory over Lakeland (10-1) in the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 3 final."
^Rosenfeld, Josh. "New Providence 21, Lincoln 8: NJSIAA North 2, Group 2 final", The Star-Ledger, December 4, 2010. Accessed December 29, 2011. "New Providence's defense made that mission a reality by shutting down an explosive Lincoln attack to post a 21-8 victory in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 championship game before 9,500 yesterday at the New Meadowlands Stadium."
^Cohen, Michael. "Lincoln fights but falls to New Providence in state title game", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, The Jersey Journal, December 4, 2010, updated January 18, 2019. Accessed February 7, 2022. "The Lions came into New Meadowlands Stadium in the North 2 Group 1 Final against New Providence a confident bunch, but the Pioneers proved too much to handle, as 13 penalties and costly turnovers did in the Lions in a 21-8 defeat."
^Parker, Chris. "Football: Raritan stuns Lincoln late, wins CJ2 title", Asbury Park Press, December 6, 2015. Accessed February 7, 2022. "Marc Carnivale’s 11 yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 10 seconds left in the game to Nick Pasquin will go down in the history books for the Raritan football program. The late touchdown helped Raritan shock previously undefeated Lincoln for the NJSIAA Central Group II title by a final, 28-26, at Kean University on Saturday night."
^Staff. "88-70", The Star-Ledger, March 9, 2008. Accessed September 20, 2012. "Lincoln won the first state title in school history when Tymel Jackson scored 23 points and Daquan Pettiford added 19 in an 88-70 victory over Collingswood in the NJSIAA/ShopRite Group 2 championship last night at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway."
^Bernstein, Jason. "'They call us Lions for a reason," No. 15 Lincoln rallies past Secaucus for first section title", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 5, 2019, August 22, 2019. Accessed October 14, 2020. "The 25-foot shot which seemed good off the fingertips of Lyndsey Ross, circled the rim once, going half-way in before spinning out and giving fourth-seeded Lincoln, No. 15 in the NJ.com Top 20, a 43-41 victory over third-seeded Secaucus in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 final in Secaucus.... After falling in the final four times in the previous seven years, Lincoln became the first Jersey City public school to win a sectional title in girls basketball."
^McCall, Tris. "Joe Budden to headline rare Stone Pony hip-hop show", The Star-Ledger, May 10, 2010. Accessed September 2, 2019. "'Even if I didn't try to make the music personal, emotional, if I started out trying to write something that wasn't like that, the pen would go in a totally different direction,' says Budden, who attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City."
^Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, 1976, p. 253. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1976. Accessed July 23, 2019. "Robert Burns, Dem., Hasbrouck Heights - Assemblyman Burns was born in Jersey City on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1926. He attended St. Patrick's School and Lincoln and Snyder High Schools in Jersey City and Seton Hall University, where he was graduated in 1955."
^Kathleen Collins papers, New York Public Library. Accessed March 15, 2022. "Lincoln High School diploma 1959 January 28 - Lincoln High School (now Lincoln High School Academy of Governance and Social Sciences) is located in Jersey City, New Jersey."
^Hunt, Todderick. "Lincoln coach explains why Frank Darby picked Arizona State over Rutgers, BC", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 18, 2016. Accessed August 9, 2022. "Wednesday, Lincoln (Jersey City, N.J.) head coach Robert Hampton informed NJ.com that class of 2016 wide receiver Frank Darby will accept a scholarship to play for Arizona State over finalists Rutgers and Boston College."
^Sibley, John. "Pioneering Hospital Director Florence Small Gaynor", The New York Times, February 10, 1971. Accessed September 17, 2020. "In the bleak years or the early thirties, at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, a black girl named Florence Small let herself dream of a career in nursing, an all but unreachable goal."
^Arnold, Laurence. "Valerie Harper, ‘Rhoda’ in Hit ’70s Television Shows, Dies at 80", Bloomberg News, August 31, 2019. Accessed September 12, 2021. "For her father’s job, the family moved every few years, from Massachusetts to New Jersey to California to Michigan to Oregon and then back to New Jersey, where Harper attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City."
^Demie J. Mainieri, West Virginia University. Accessed March 10, 2022. "Demie Mainieri, a Jersey City, New Jersey native was born on October 21, 1928. He attended Lincoln High School in his Jersey City and came to Morgantown via Potomac State College in 1950."
^Amdur, Neil. "Sports; And Now They Play The Game of Politics", The New York Times, May 7, 1978. Accessed September 2, 2019. "Mr. Mays calls his experience in the Assembly, where he is a member of the Education and Judicial Committees, 'new schooling.' He is listening and learning, he says, but he has not changed his style from his competitive days at Lincoln High School in Jersey City or at Maryland State College."
^O'Gorman, George. "O'Gorman: Garden State home to plenty of NFL stars", The Trentonian, November 29, 2009. Accessed December 30, 2011. "Trying to shut down Drew Brees and the 10-0 Saints tomorrow will be Brandon McGowan of Lincoln/Jersey City who has 50 solo tackles among the 63 he's made in the Patriot secondary."
^Delozier, Alan. Andy Stanfield – “The World’s Fastest Human”, Seton Hall University, March 3, 2022. Accessed May 30, 3034. "Andrew “Andy” William Stanfield was born on December 29, 1927 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Jersey City. Stanfield later attended Lincoln High School in Hudson County where he was the City, District, and New Jersey State Champion in the 220 yard dash and Broad Jump."
^Haines, Helen E. "What's in a Novel", p. 690. Accessed December 26, 2017. "Philip Van Doren Stern was born in the town of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, the son of Isadore Ullman and Anne (Van Doren) Stern. He attended grade school and Lincoln High School in Jersey City; was graduated in 1924 from Rutgers with a Litt. B. degree and later awarded an honorary degree (Litt. D., 1940) from the same university for work in Lincolniana and American history."
^Obituary of George F. Tardiff, Legacy.com. Accessed January 16, 2020. "George F. Tardiff 'Coach', Brick, N.J. 75, passed away on Friday, September 21, 2012 at Ocean Medical Center at Brick, after a short illness. Born in Jersey City in 1936, he was a standout football player at Lincoln High School, Jersey City, NJ, St. Benedict's, Atchinson, KS ('59) and for Buffalo Bills Training Camp (60), American Football League."
^Olivier, Bobby."Dennis 'Dee Tee' Thomas, co-founder of N.J.’s Kool and the Gang, dies at 70", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, August 9, 2021. Accessed February 11, 2023. "Dennis 'Dee Tee' Thomas, saxophonist and co-founding member of New Jersey soul superstars Kool and the Gang, died Saturday.... Thomas, a New Jersey Hall of Famer and longtime resident of Montclair, was one of seven original members of the Jersey City band, which began in 1964 as a group of teen players attending the city’s Lincoln High School."
^Gribbins, J. Joseph. Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, Volume 197, Parts 1-2, p. 211. J.A. Fitzgerald, 1976. "Senator Tumulty was born in Jersey City Oct. 1, 1914. He was graduated from Lincoln High School, Jersey City; from Columbia University with a degree of bachelor of arts; ad from Fordham University with a law degree."
^Elnardo Webster, Basketball Reference. Accessed March 23, 2022. "Born: March 6, 1948 (Age: 74-017d) in Jersey City, New Jersey... High School: Lincoln in Jersey City, New Jersey"
