lincolntrojans.com

Lincoln High football began competition in 1975, playing a  junior varsity schedule as an independent. Led by Coach Jack Gaskins, the JV Trojans opened impressively by reeling off a 67-0 shutout over the Rickards JV.  The Trojans ran their record to 5-0 before suffering their only defeat en route to a 6-1 JV season.
    
The Trojans' first varsity season, 1976, saw mixed success as the Trojans put together a 4-6 record including the school's first varsity win, a 19-2 victory over Madison County.  
    
In 1977 Lincoln collected its first varsity win against a Tallahassee public school, beating Rickards 32-12 and later followed up with a victory over Godby.  The inaugural Lincoln-Leon matchup produced a hard fought 34-21 Leon win.  The Trojans ended the '77 campaign with a 9-2 record following a 28-0 blanking of Gainesville Buchholz in Gainesville's Florida Bowl.
    
Another winning season followed in 1978 as Lincoln finished 5-4 despite a heartbreaking 27-26 loss to Leon before a large crowd at Florida State University's Doak Campbell Stadium.  Along the way the young Lincoln program garnered its first win against a western Panhandle team by topping Pensacola Escambia 28-7.  Coach Gaskins' term ended with an 18-12 varsity record.
    
The 1979 and 1980 seasons produced 4-6 and 4-5 marks as the Trojans added Live Oak Suwannee, Niceville, and Panama City Mosley to an already challenging schedule.  The final game of Coach Charles Armstrong's two years at the helm saw a spirited Lincoln team again falling to Leon by a single point, 35-34.
    
Coach Steve Hardin took the helm in 1981 and led Lincoln to three consecutive seven win seasons.  Highlighting that run were three game sweeps of Jacksonville Wolfson, Quincy Shanks, and Madison County and two game sweeps of Panama City Bay, Taylor County, and Fernandina Beach.  The 1983 team set the standard for defensive excellence by allowing only 72 points (8.0 points per game) during a 9 game season.
    
Impressive wins against Mosley, Wolfson, Godby, Pensacola Washington, and North Marion were memorable moments in the 1984 campaign.  An 18-0 win at Jefferson County in Monticello's Pecan Bowl capped an 8-3 year for Lincoln.
    
1985 featured wins over Panama City's Mosley, Bay, and Rutherford plus the Trojans' first win over Jacksonville Sandalwood as Lincoln compiled a 6-4 record.  A rebuilding year followed in 1986 as the Trojans managed three wins.
    
The 1987 Trojans rebounded with an outstanding 9-2 season highlighted by Lincoln's first win over Leon.  The 23-18 victory ended the Lions' 13 game win streak over Lincoln and laid the foundation for an amazing Trojan run in the series.  Wins over Orlando Edgewater and Pensacola Escambia were key and a season ending bowl game win over Lantana Santaluces which ran the Trojans' postseason record to 3-0.
    
After reloading in 1988, Lincoln jumped into the limelight in 1989 by chalking up a 9-3 record which included the school's first district championship.  Wins over Gainesville Buchholz, Pensacola Escambia, Jacksonville Raines, and a 21-20 thriller over Leon signaled that the Trojans had arrived in the big-time.  
    
The new decade was kicked off in 1990 with another nine win season and the Trojans' second straight district title and appearance in the Class 4A state playoffs.  A sweep of local rivals Rickards, Godby, and Leon produced five Trojan wins as Rickards was beaten twice in the regular season and Godby fell in the regular season and in the playoffs.  A tough 8-7 playoff loss to Milton ended the Coach Steve Hardin era, which raised the bar by producing two district titles and a 69-36 overall record.
    
The 1991-1995 seasons were a time of transition as Lincoln moved from a Panhandle dominated Class 4A schedule to the rigors of Class 5A competition in a district largely composed of Jacksonville area teams.  
    
The persistence of the Lincoln team and Coach David Wilson was rewarded by a perfect 10-0 regular season in 1996 that featured victories over Rickards, Leon, and Godby and opponents from Live Oak, Lake City, Ocala, and Jacksonville.  A 20-19 setback against Pensacola High in the state playoffs was the season's only blemish.
    
Lincoln took a different route to the state playoffs in 1997 as a 7-3 regular season resulted in a playoff berth as district runnerup; this was made possible by the expansion of the state playoffs a few years earlier.  Wins over Orange Park, Jacksonville Sandalwood, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville Mandarin stood out and Lincoln pickd up its 4th straight win over both Leon and Godby.
    
A third straight trip to the state playoffs followed in 1998 as Lincoln assembled a 9-4 record that included four wins over teams from northeast Florida and a trip to the state playoffs where the Trojans battled to a payback win over Niceville and an overtime victory over Orlando Dr. Phillips before losing a tough 18-16 third round game at Bradenton Southeast.  Overall, 8 of Lincoln's 13 games were on the road including all 3 playoff games.  One of the road games started a new tradition as Lincoln traveled to Valdosta, Georgia to take on the Valdosta High Wildcats kicking off a series that continues today.
    
To date Coach Wilson's teams had built a strong foundation brick by brick.  The hard work paid off in 1999 as the Trojans picked up their first win at Valdosta 28-14, squeezed in between road wins at DeLand and Orange Park. Lincoln then defeated Orlando Edgewater, Altamonte Springs Lake Brantley, Oviedo, and Palm Bay en route to the class 6A state championship game in Gainesville.  There the Trojans upended Miami Southridge 21-14 to cap a 13-2 season with the school's first state championship in football.
    
The Lincoln express steamed in the new century with a perfect 10-0 resume that included road wins at Panama City Mosley, Gainesville Buchholz, and Valdosta in the first three weeks and a sweep of local rivals Godby, Leon, and Rickards later in the year.  State playoff wins over Orlando Dr. Phillips, Lake Brantley, and Orlando Evans propelled the Trojans in to the class 6A state semifinal game at Palm Bay.  A gut wrenching 21-20 overtime loss broke the Trojans' 12 game win streak and ended the season at 13-1.
    
The 2001 season found Lincoln aiming high again and the Trojans jumped to a 2-0 mark before dropping a 31-21 decision at Valdosta.  Ten straight wins set Lincoln up for a third straight state semi-final matchup with Palm Bay.  The Trojans and Pirates had split the first two games with each team holding serve at its home stadium.  Tallahassee's Gene Cox Stadium was packed for the 2001 game and Lincoln prevailed 24-21, the third straight year the game had been decided by 3 points or less.  The class 4A state championship game awaited and the Trojans had the honor of playing before the home crowd at Florida State University's Doak Campbell Stadium against Ft. Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.  Though Aquinas put up a good fight, Lincoln won the battle 28-20 to end the 14-1 season crowned state champion in class 4A.
    
The Trojans ran their winning streak to 14 with two season opening wins in 2002 before making the annual journey to Valdosta.  After four quarters the Trojans and Wildcats were tied 29-29.  This resulted in the only tie in Lincoln history as the states of Florida and Georgia had different overtime tiebreaker systems which prevented the determination of a winner.  The Trojan machine picked right up and ran off 10 straight wins to run their undefeated streak to 25 games.  This set up a fourth straight pairing with Palm Bay for the right to play for the state championship.  Once again the home team, in this case Palm Bay, won the game.  Lincoln's 12-1-1 record ran the Trojans' record during the past four seasons to an amazing 52-5-1 that included two state titles.
    
The 2003 team quickly established a reputation as heart stoppers as the Trojans opened the season with a 14-13 win at Pensacola and followed up with a 14-10 win at Orlando Edgewater before a packed house in a game between nationally ranked teams.  The next week saw Lincoln post a 21-20 comeback win at Valdosta.  The thrills kept coming as Lincoln rallied in a monsoon for a 16-14 victory over Panama City Mosley.  After demolishing Leon and North Florida Christian, the latter before the cameras of ESPN which cut in during their weeknight college broadcast, the Trojans were 6-0 and ranked # 6 nationally by USA Today.  This set up another wire game as undefeated Madison County managed to stop a last ditch Trojan drive with a goal line stand to hand Lincoln its first loss of the year.  The 8-2 regular season sent Lincoln into the playoffs where they quickly dispatched Gainesville High before dropping an offensive showcase to Ft. Walton Beach Choctawhatchee 42-35.
    
An ominous start to the 2004 campaign with two opening losses was followed by 7 wins in the next 8 games including shutouts in the final two regular season games.  Following a hard earned win over Lake City Columbia to open the playoffs, Lincoln traveled to Pensacola High where the Trojans' year ended by a 14-7 margin.  Following the 2004 season Coach David Wilson retired, leaving behind an impressive record of 119-47-1 at Lincoln that included two state championships.  His 213 career wins ranks Coach Wilson as one of Florida's all-time greatest head coaches.
    
The 2005 season was the first under Head Coach Kyle Rice, a long time assistant at Lincoln.  A thrilling 35-34 triple overtime win against Rickards opened the season before Alabama class 6A state runnerup Daphne came to Tallahassee for Lincoln's first ever game against a team from that state.  In the end the Daphne Trojans prevailed 29-26 in a game that seemed to ignite Lincoln's determination not to lose again.  The theme of the next game, the annual match at Valdosta, should have been refuse to lose as Lincoln scratched its way to an exciting 21-20 comeback win.  Wins against Pensacola, Rutherford, Leon, Mosley, Chiles, and Godby sent Lincoln into the state playoffs with an 8-1 mark.  After outlasting Jacksonville Lee in the opening round, the Trojans were knocked out of the playoffs by undefeated Pace High.  
    
A promising 2006 season kicked off with a 33-0 shutout of the Rickards Raiders before a pair of tough road losses at Daphne, Alabama and at Pensacola High.  A wild game at Valdosta saw the Trojans score the go-ahead touchdown with 31 seconds remaining then hang on for a 27-24 victory as a 54 yard field goal attempt by the Wildcats hit the crossbar, bounced several feet high, and came down short of the goal post.  That win propelled Lincoln to a 5 game winning streak as the Trojans rolled past Rutherford, Leon, Mosley, and Chiles before falling to Godby to close the regular season.  The Trojans then made a deep run in the state playoffs by routing Jacksonville Wolfson 33-0, rallying for 10 points in the final 9 minutes at Milton for a 27-24 win, and again coming on strong at the end for a satisfying 31-30 victory over Pace for the regional championship.  The Trojans’ season was derailed by the defending state champion Ponte Vedra Beach Nease Panthers the following week.
    
The 2007 season saw Lincoln reel off an opening 47-14 win over Rickards, a 35-28 thriller over Class 6A power Orlando Edgewater, and a 45-0 whitewash of Leon.  The annual border war at Valdosta went the Wildcats way 21-17.  The Trojans rebounded with a classic 48-47 double overtime victory at Pensacola Pine Forest and finished a three game road trip with a 28-8 win over Rutherford in Panama City.  Lincoln bowled over East Gadsden 45-7 in the teams' first ever meeting then added wins over Mosley 35-13 and Chiles 52-12.  The regular season closed with an impressive 47-14 victory over Godby in front of a national television audience on Fox Sports Network.  The state playoffs opened with a high scoring 59-26 domination of Jacksonville Forrest.  The Trojan season came to a halt the following week in Jacksonville as the First Coast Buccaneers stunned Lincoln in the second round.
    
2008 was basically the tale of two seasons.  After solid opening wins over Rickards and Orlando Edgewater, the Trojans traveled to Duncan, SC where they fell to Byrnes, the nation's # 1 ranked team.  Lincoln bounced back to win its district opener over Leon before losses to Pensacola Pine Forest and Rutherford.  A makeover of the offense and a renewed energy propelled the Trojans on a 4 game winning streak to end the regular season as they downed East Gadsden, Mosley, Chiles, and Godby en route to Lincoln's 10th consecutive district title. The winning streak reached 8 games as Lincoln picked up state playoff wins over Jacksonville Lee 28-7, Leon 27-20, Fort Walton Beach 39-7, and Daytona Beach Seabreeze 30-12.  The season's two wins over Leon extended Lincoln's winning streak in the series to 11 games and gave the Trojans an 18-17 all-time lead.  The 2008 campaign ended with a loss in the state championship game against top ranked Tampa Plant in Orlando's Citrus Bowl.  Coach Kyle Rice stepped down after the season with a 39-12 record in 4 seasons at the helm.
    
The Lincoln Trojans enter 2009, their 34th season, with a combined varsity record of 252-118- 1, which includes 15 trips to the state playoffs.  Lincoln has amassed a record of 32-13 in the playoffs and has recorded two state championships and one state runnerup.  Coach Yusuf Shakir returns to his alma mater following two successful seasons at St. Petersburg Gibbs High School.  Join us in another exciting season and remember to keep up with the Trojans online at www.lincolntrojans.com.