Terry Baker

Born in Pine River, Minnesota, Baker was raised in Portland, Oregon, and attended its Jefferson High School, where was a standout three-sport athlete. Baker was a three-year letter winner in basketball, and led the Democrats to the Portland Interscholastic League city championship his senior year. Baker was also a great baseball player; he lettered all four years and led Jefferson to the 1959 state 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 played point guard on the Oregon State basketball team, and quarterback in football, but was a halfback as a sophomore in 1960. He threw for 3,476 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushing for 1503 yards and 15 touchdowns, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1963.

On November 27, 1962, Baker won the Heisman Trophy for his achievements during the 1962 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 the Maxwell Award and the W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy in 1962, was a consensus first team All-American, was named as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year,[1] was a Helms Foundation Award recipient and won 14 player of the year awards, including from AP, UPI and The Sporting News. He also played in the College All-Star Game in Chicago on August 2, 1963, the last time the collegiate stars defeated the reigning NFL champion.[4]

Baker's 99-yard run in the first quarter against Villanova in the frigid Liberty Bowl (in Philadelphia 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.

Baker was the first overall pick in the 1963 NFL Draft, taken by the Los Angeles Rams.[8][9] He was also the ninetieth pick of the AFL draft in the twelfth round by the San Diego Chargers). The Rams had drafted Roman Gabriel in 1962 and had Zeke Bratkowski on the roster as well.

Before going into training camp with the Rams, he led the College All-Stars to victory in the Chicago 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 attempts at long passes would turn into easy balls for interceptions due to low velocity. A game against the Detroit Lions saw him picked apart for three interceptions (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). 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 from Bill Munson in the fourth quarter that served as the go-ahead points in a 30-28 win.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]

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 the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL), while earning a J.D. at the University of Southern California Law School, studying at night during football and full-time in the offseason. 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 football career. Baker then returned to Portland where he was a founding partner at the law firm Tonkon Torp.[15][16]

Baker was inducted into the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980,[17] the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.[18] Oregon State has retired his No. 11 football jersey, the only number retired by the football team.[19][20]

• List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders

• Beau Riffenburgh, "Terry Baker: A Different Success", The Coffin Corner, vol. 9, no. 7 (1987).

• Terry Baker at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Terry Baker at Heisman.com
• Career statistics and player information from NFL.com · Pro Football Reference
• Terry Baker Oral History Interview