Baker, Terry - 1963

From OSU Wiki

Terry Baker, born in Minnesota, moved to Oregon in his early years and starred at Portland's Jefferson High School in football, baseball, and basketball. Baker initially wanted to attend Stanford coming out of high school because of its academic reputation, but he ended up choosing OSU because a high school friend of his with whom he wanted to play basketball with in college was offered a full scholarship at OSU, but not at Stanford. Baker had no desire to play football in college, preferring to participate in both basketball and baseball. After not playing football his freshman year, Baker was asked by head football coach Tommy Prothro to sit in on a team meeting. While at the meeting, Baker noticed that his name was on the depth chart as the second string tailback. After seeing his inclusion on the team's depth chart, he decided to give football at OSU a try. It didn't take too long for Baker to move from tailback to quarterback, and in 1962, his senior season, he won the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded each year to college football's most outstanding player. OSU went 9-2 in Baker's Heisman year, and ended up defeating Villanova in the Liberty Bowl at season's end. Baker scored the only touchdown of the game on a 99 yard run. For the season, Baker combined to run and pass for a total of 4980 yards and throw 15 touchdown passes. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Baker played for the Los Angeles Rams for three years before moving on to the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos for a year. While playing professional football, Baker completed a law degree at USC. After his playing days, Baker worked as a lawyer in Portland, dealing mostly in business litigation.