Historic Football Records for

Lakehurst Naval Air Station

Crew of ZR-1/Shenandoah
Image of old postcard of the United States Navy airship ZR-1, the Shenandoah, moored to the mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, Lakehurst, New Jersey, circa 1923 or 1924.

U.S.N. Shenandoah (ZR-1)

  1923   Coach: Jimmy Work
11/17  L  7-37       Receiving Station of League Island Navy Yard (Philadelphia)
.      T 12-12       Doylestown Legion (Pa.)
12/8   W 12-7     at Bristol A.A. (Pa.)

  1924  
11/15               Sterner Lumber Company of Belmar (H) orig. scheduled at Belmar
11/27  T  0-0     at Bristol A.A. (Pa.)

  1925   Coach: Jimmy Work
11/11  L  6-7     at Doylestown Blue Sox (Pa.) [1st loss of season] Benefit for dependents of those killed on crash of U.S. Navy dirigible U.S.S. Shenandoah

  1928   
11/18   L  0-7 at Red Bank Cavalrymen (Troop E) 6-7? 11/11?

Blimps
Photo from 1950s of large blimp, possibly the over 400 foot long Vigilance (ZPG-3W), the largest blimp in history, outside historic Hanger One, at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, Lakehurst, New Jersey. Hanger 1 once saw the Zeppelin Hindenburg barely fitting inside, and also four rigid airships, including the Shenendoah, the Los Angeles and the Akron. Two additional blimps are also sitting on the tarmac in the distance. Also in this view are the adjoining smaller hangers 2 & 3.

The NAS Lakehurst Blimps

  1942  (4-4-1) Coach: Major A.H. Edwards (Notre Dame)
9/26   L  6-20    at Princeton  3,000
10/3   L  0-14       Maryland  6,000
10/9   L  7-20    at Delaware  9,000
10/17  W 14-0     at Albright
10/24  W 20-7     at Pennsylvania Military College (PMC)
11/1   T 14-14    at Scranton
11/13  W 14-0     at Lafayette
11/21  W 27-7     at Muhlenberg
11/28  L  0-13    at Duquesne  8,000  [11/26?]
.      no game       Brooklyn College

  1943  (2-5-0) Coach: Major A.H. Edwards (Notre Dame)
9/11  canceled    at Yale
9/18   L 12-61    at Princeton
9/25   L  0-13    at Muhlenberg
10/6   W  6-0     at Army Plebes (West Point)
10/16  L  6-74    at Penn, Franklin Field  25,000
10/23  L 14-27    at Villanova  5,000
10/30 canceled    at Sampson Naval Training Station (Willard, NY)
11/6   L  0-13    at Bucknell
11/14  W 26-12       Camp Kilmer
11/21 canceled    at Rome (NY) Army Air Force Base
 Notes:
° The U.S. Navy airship ZR-1, The Shenandoah, was built & based at Lakehurst Naval Air Station
° Lakehurst NAS drop football for 1944 due to restricted college schedules.
° Shenadoah (ZR-1) was 680 feet long, 76' 9" hull diameter. Top speed of 40 knots. Top speed 60 knots (70 mph). Crew of 40.
Aerial photo, circa 1924, is the U.S/. Navy rigid airship Shenandoah (ZR-1), halfway into historic Hanger One. It is halfway in, we see the tail.
° Shenandoah was the first airship to use helium instead of hydrogen.
° Used six 300 horse power, 8-cylinder, specially housed Packard Motor Car Company gasoline engines
° Launched 8/20/1923, crashed, torn apart in a squall, in Ohio 9/3/1925 on its 57th flight. It was the first of 4 United States rigid airships berthed at Lakehurst
° The Shenandoah was the first rigid airship to make a transcontinental flight.
° Carried six 30-calibre Lewis machine guns and eight 500-lb. bombs.
° Hindenburg Disaster: In 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible, the Hindenburg caught on fire at the Lakehurst mooring mast.
° In 1916, the site began as an ammunition-testing site for the Imperial Russian Army
° During World War One, housed the United States Army. Named Camp Kendrick, used as an ammunition proving ground.
° Bought by the United States Navy in 1921 and renamed Naval Air Station Lakehurst.
° 1921 to 1961: Housed the Lighter Than Air Center (LTA).
° Anti-submarine blimps based at Lakehurst during World War Two.
° Since 1950s, the Navy has trained Aviation Boatswain's Mates in the operation of catapults and arresting systems for air craft carriers. Naval Air Test Facility (NATF) since 1958.
° Hanger 1 where the Shenandoah was built, 1922-23, is now a national landmark. When built it was the “largest room in the world”.
Omage of U.S. Navy airship Shenandoah (ZR-1) leaving Hanger One, circa 1923.
° Hanger 1 housed the German Zeppellin, the 803.8 foot long Hindenburg (LZ-129) on its first trip to the United States, as well as the Graf Zeppellin It was home to four United States Navy dirigibles, including USN Los Angeles (ZR-3), the USN Akron (ZRS-4) amd the USN Macon. as well as the US Army's semi-rigid RS-1 in 1927. Today, Hanger One is known as Hanger 4.
° The high mast in the first image on this page was 160 feet high. Last used in 1929.
° Named Maxfield Field in 1944, for Commander Louis H. Maxfield who died in airship USN ZR-2's crash at Hull, England, in 1921. A.K.A. 87th Air Base Wing (87 ABW).
° Since 2009, its official name is Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, a unit of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL).
° Under jurisdiction of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Lakehurst os the largest naval aviation installation in the Northeast.
° NAS Lakehurst still has two operating 5,000 feet runways.
° Housed the Vigalance (ZPG-3W), the largest non-rigid airship ever built, was over 400 feet long. Manufactured by Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, first flight 1958, known as an N-Class, was commonly called Nan Ships. It housed a huge radar antenna housed inside the helium envelope that, due to its low frequency, could detect aircraft better than any other system before or since.. Was part of the Airship Airborne Early Warning Squadron ZW-1 (AEW). Decommissioned 1962 when the lighter than air program ended. See an image of the largest blimp ever, ZPG-3W. (click here)
° In 2006, after 44 years, the U.S. Navy restarted airship operations at Lakehurst again, with the MZ-3A airship.
° The airship program is part of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at Lakehurst
° MZ-3A was renamed Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1) in 2011
Photo of the October 26, 2011 renaming ceremony at NAS Lakehurst. View of blimp inside NAWCAD blimp hanger. MZ-3A newly designated as Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1), and given U.S. Navy markings..

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This list is compiled and designed by Paul S. Luchter
  Updated 6/27/2013

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side view of ZR-1, The Shenandoah dirigible, color postcard.
Side view of USN Shenandoah, US Navy rigid airship, at mooring mast