.jpg) Baker at Oregon Statec. 1963 | |||||||||||||||||||
| No. 15, 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Position: | Quarterback | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born: | (1941-05-05)May 5, 1941 (age 83) Pine River, Minnesota, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 200 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||
| High school: | Jefferson (Portland, Oregon) | ||||||||||||||||||
| College: | Oregon State (1960–1962) | ||||||||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1963: 1st round,1st pick | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||
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Terry Wayne Baker (born May 5, 1941) is an American former professionalfootballquarterback who played in theNational Football League (NFL) and theCanadian Football League (CFL). He playedcollege football andbasketball atOregon State University, where he was a member and president ofPhi Delta Theta. Baker played for theOregon State Beavers football team from 1960 to 1962, winning theHeisman Trophy as a senior. In the spring of his senior year, he ledthe basketball team to the1963 Final Four. To date, he is the only athlete to win a Heisman Trophy and play in the Final Four.[2]
Baker was thefirst overall pick in the1963 NFL draft and played with theLos Angeles Rams from 1963 to 1965. He then played for one season in the CFL with theEdmonton Eskimos in 1967. Baker was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Terry Baker was born May 5, 1941, inPine River, Minnesota, and raised inPortland, Oregon. He attendedJefferson High School, where he was a standout three-sport athlete. Baker was a three-year letter winner in basketball, and led the Democrats to thePortland Interscholastic League city championship his senior year. Baker was also a great baseball player; he lettered all four years and led Jefferson to the 1959state championship.
Football was Baker's most dominant sport and he played quarterback and tailback for the Democrats. In his junior and senior seasons, the Democrats were 23–0 and won consecutive state championships. As a senior, he threw for 1,261 yards and ran for 438 yards.[3]
Baker playedpoint guard on theOregon State basketball team, and quarterback infootball, but was a halfback as a sophomore in1960. He threw for 3,476 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushing for 1503 yards and 15 touchdowns, and graduated with aBachelor of Science inmechanical engineering in 1963.
On November 27, 1962, Bakerwon the Heisman Trophy for his achievements during the1962 season. He was the first player from a school west of Texas to win the award. In addition to winning the Heisman, he also won theMaxwell Award and theW. J. Voit Memorial Trophy in 1962, was a consensus first teamAll-American, was named as theSports IllustratedSportsman of the Year,[1] was aHelms Foundation Award recipient and won 14 player of the year awards, including from AP, UPI andThe Sporting News. He also played in theCollege All-Star Game inChicago on August 2, 1963, the last time the collegiate stars defeated the reigningNFL champion.[4]
Baker's 99-yard run in the first quarter againstVillanova in the frigidLiberty Bowl (inPhiladelphia in mid-December 1962), the only score in Oregon State's 6–0 victory,[5][6][7] remains an NCAA record. Because plays from scrimmage can never start from the goal line, the record can never be broken, only tied.[citation needed]
Baker was the first overall pick in the1963 NFL draft, taken by theLos Angeles Rams.[8][9] He was also the ninetieth pick of theAFL draft in thetwelfth round by theSan Diego Chargers). The Rams had draftedRoman Gabriel in 1962 and hadZeke Bratkowski on the roster as well.
Before going into training camp with the Rams, he led the College All-Stars to victory in theChicago College All-Star Game that matched them against the defending NFL champion (Green Bay Packers), the last time the college team would beat an NFL team before the game was discontinued in 1976. When Baker arrived in camp, he dazzled in the presentation of calling out signals and handing the ball out while doing soft throws for warm-up lobs. However, as camp went on, it was discovered that he did not have a strong arm to throw the ball hard more than a general lob, as his arm was used to rolling out to throw in college rather than throwing a straight pass from the pocket. The result was that while he could throw short passes capably, his long passes were susceptible to being intercepted due to low velocity.
In a game against theDetroit Lions, Baker threw three interceptions, with one returned for a touchdown.[10] He went 6-of-12 for 72 yards while rushing four times for 21 yards in a 23–2 loss.[11] Four games later, he went 5-of-7 for 68 yards with one interception versus the Chicago Cardinals while running five times for 25 yards. These were his only two games where he served as a primary quarterback (aside from two games where he was sent to throw one pass).
Baker was converted torunning back by the Rams in1964.[12]
He scored his only touchdowns in his final season of 1965. He caught 8 passes for 82 yards against the Chicago Bears on September 26; he caught a ten-yard pass fromBill Munson in the fourth quarter that served as the go-ahead points in a 30–28 win.[13] The next week against the Minnesota Vikings, Baker caught a 38-yard pass from Gabriel in the first quarter, but the Rams lost 38-35 while he caught four passes for 61 yards.[14] He scored his last touchdown on October 17, 1965, rushing the ball one yard in his only carry against the San Francisco 49ers in a loss.[15]
In total, Baker rushed 58 times for 210 yards in his career with thirty catches for 302 yards in three seasons with the Rams as quarterback-turned-halfback-turned-receiver before he was released in the summer of 1966. He went to theEdmonton Eskimos of theCanadian Football League (CFL), while earning aJ.D. at theUniversity of Southern California Law School, studying at night during football season and full-time in the offseason. He was a backup QB and running back with Eskimos but played sparingly. A pulled muscle in the groin, alongside a dispute about a contract while he tried to take the bar exam in Oregon, led to the end of his professional football career. Baker would then return to Portland, where he was a founding partner at the law firmTonkon Torp.[16][17]
Baker was inducted into theState of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980,[18] theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.[19] Oregon State has retired his No. 11 football jersey, the only number retired by the football team.[20][21]