Only one Big Eight/NIC-10 football player ever went on to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and football wasn't even his favorite sport.
Ralph Baker was a star at Rockford High School from the minute he stepped foot on campus. Beginning in 1919, he was a four-year starter in basketball at a time Rockford was one of the top two or three basketball schools in the state. In Baker's four years as the starting center, Rockford compiled a 68-10 record and made it to the IHSA tournament all four years, winning the state title in 1919, finishing second in 1921 and third in 1922.
In football, Baker played on the heavyweights beginning as a sophomore and was a three time all-conference pick. He started out on the line but was moved into the backfield as a junior. In the second week of the 1920 season, Baker set a conference record with 53 points in a 100-0 win over Joliet. Baker scored on five touchdown runs and had TD receptions of 50 and 20 yards. He also kicked eight extra points and added a drop kick. Interestingly, Baker wouldn't score another TD in 1920 as the Rabs went 7-0-2.
In 1921, Baker was the unquestioned star for a Rockford team that went 8-1. The only loss in Ralph's final two seasons was a 6-0 loss to Elgin. Baker scored in every other game in almost every way. He had 13 touchdown runs, four touchdown passes, four punt return TDs, six drop kicks and 13 extra points. The rest of the Rockford team combined to score eight touchdowns on the season.
Baker was heavily recruited by several Western Conference schools and Baker originally picked Illinois, which already had had considerable success with Rockford athletes such as Milton Olander and Laurie Walquist. Baker spent his first year on the freshman team and then transferred to Northwestern.
A 1977 story by the Rockford Register Star's Mike Doyle quoted a former Baker teammate as saying Baker got a better offer - promise of a job and money - to transfer to Evanston. Baker turned out to be worth the illegal cash.
After sitting out for a year, Baker won a starting spot for the 1924 Northwestern squad. Baker was picked for the All-Western Conference team by several publications after scoring four touchdowns and kicking five field goals and seven extra points. His play was so spectacular that he was often called "Northwestern's Red Grange." Grange, Baker's former teammate, had become a national phenomenon at Baker's old school.
Sometime during that season, he picked up the nickname "Moon" because he read the popular comic strip Moon Mullins every day in the Chicago Tribune.
In 1925, Baker's fame had grown so large that he was named to several All-American teams despite the fact that he played in only four games because of an ankle injury.
In 1926, fully healed, Baker was again tabbed as an All-American by several publications after leading the Wildcats in scoring with two TD runs, catching one TD pass, kicking two field goals and 10 extra points and adding three touchdown passes.
By today's standards, Baker's contributions don't seem all that impressive. He had seven TD runs, one TD receptions, eight field goals, 19 extra points and three TD passes in 20 games. The Wildcats, though, averaged 15 points per game in Baker's three seasons. He played a part - either by scoring, kicking or throwing - in 109 of Northwestern's 369 points over those three years.
The Wildcats also went 16-8 during Baker's time in Evanston. He powered the 1926 team to a 5-0 record in the Western Conference and 7-1 overall. It is one of just eight Western Conference/Big Ten titles in school history.
In 1925, Grange gave the struggling National Football League a huge shot in the arm by joining the Chicago Bears and going on a barnstorming tour to raise the league's profile. Grange left the Bears for the 1926 season and Chicago hoped Baker could be his replacement. A story in the Rockford Morning Star said the Bears were signing Baker for the 1927 season.
That's the only mention the NIC-10 History Book could find about Baker and the Bears. He never played a game in the NFL. Instead, he focused on basketball. Baker also played hoops for Northwestern and he made his pro basketball debut in January 1927 with the Burr Athletic Wear team. Ralph would go on to play a few games for the Chicago Bruins in the American Basketball League in 1927 as well.
Baker eventually moved out west. He was a coach at a small college until moving to Redwood City where he became a taxi driver. He remained a cabbie and a supervisor until retiring in the 1960s. He died in 1977 four years after he was first nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame. He was finally inducted in 1981.
| No. 14 - Ralph Baker, Rockford | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Level | School | Accomplishments | Points |
| 1919 | High School | Rockford | First Team All-Conference | 2 |
| Winning Team | 1 | |||
| 1920 | High School | Rockford | First Team All-Conference | 2 |
| Winning Team | 1 | |||
| Conference Champion | 1 | |||
| 1921 | High School | Rockford | First Team All-Conference | 2 |
| Winning Team | 1 | |||
| League Leader (Touchdowns) | 1 | |||
| 1922 | College | Illinois | Player on Power 5 Freshman Team | 2 |
| 1924 | College | Northwestern | Letter Winner on Power 5 Team | 4 |
| Starter | 1 | |||
| Winning Team | 1 | |||
| All-Western Conference | 1 | |||
| 1925 | College | Northwestern | Letter Winner on Power 5 Team | 4 |
| Starter | 1 | |||
| All-Western Conference | 1 | |||
| All-American | 1 | |||
| Winning Record | 1 | |||
| 1926 | College | Northwestern | Letter Winner on Power 5 Team | 4 |
| Starter | 1 | |||
| All-Western Conference | 1 | |||
| All-American | 1 | |||
| Winning Record | 1 | |||
| Conference Champion | 1 | |||
| 1927 | College | Chicago | Free Agent Contract | 1 |
| Total | 37 | |||
NIC-10's 100 Greatest Football Players
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