Hobey Baker

Lore & Background

Baker was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, the second son of Alfred Thornton Baker, a wealthy upholsterer, and Mary Augusta Pemberton, a socialite. At age eleven he was sent to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he was introduced to ice hockey by coach Malcolm Gordon. Baker was known as an exceptionally fast and agile skater, spending nights skating on frozen ponds to improve his puck handling. He was named to the school's varsity team at fourteen and helped St. Paul's defeat top prep schools and universities. In every sport he attempted he demonstrated proficiency, once entering the cross-country race for fun and winning. At fifteen he was named the school's best athlete in hockey, football, baseball, tennis, swimming, and track.

At Princeton, Baker joined the hockey, football, and baseball teams in his freshman year, but gave up baseball to focus on hockey and football. He was easily recognizable on the football field because he wore no helmet, and was referred to as 'the blond Adonis of the gridiron' by Philadelphia sportswriters. During the 1911 football season he scored 92 points, a school record that lasted until 1974. In hockey, his most famous game was on January 24, 1914, against Harvard at the Boston Arena, a 'sudden death' overtime contest that was the longest college hockey game played up to that point. Baker was repeatedly called offside because he was too fast for his replacement teammates. He recorded the only penalty of his collegiate career, for slashing, in a game against Harvard on January 22, 1913. After every game he visited opponents' dressing rooms to shake hands with each player.

Reader's Guide

Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service. During World War I he served with the 103rd and the 13th Aero Squadrons before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron. He died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, hours before he was due to leave France and return to America. Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time and is considered one of the best early American hockey players. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973, he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person in both the hockey and the college football halls of fame. F. Scott Fitzgerald idolized Baker and based Allenby, a minor character in the 1920 novel This Side of Paradise, on him. In 1921, Princeton named its new hockey arena the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. The Hobey Baker Award was introduced in 1980, awarded annually to the best collegiate hockey player.

Did You Know?

• Baker never fumbled a punt and never lost to Yale during his football career at Princeton.
• He set a school record in 1911 with 13 punt returns for 63 yards in a game against Yale, a record that still stands.
• Baker scored 180 points over his three-year football career at Princeton, a school record that lasted until 1964.
• He is the only person inducted into both the Hockey Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

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