Terry Baker - Football

From the heart of Portland to the Willamette Valley and onto national success at the highest level, Terry Baker remains the state’s most decorated player for having won the Heisman Trophy while at Oregon State. And, he played basketball, too.

Born in 1941 in Minnesota, Baker played football, basketball and baseball at Portland’s Jefferson High, and led the Democrats to an unprecedented level of athletic success. While at the school, the Demos won the state football title in 1958 and ’59 with the 6-foot-3 Baker at quarterback, the state baseball title in 1959 with Baker as the winning pitcher of the title game, and reached the state boys basketball tournament in 1959 and ’60 with Baker as point guard.

Despite the lack of success at the state level in basketball, Baker chose to attend OSU on a basketball scholarship to play for legendary coach Slats Gill. He quickly joined the football program to play under coach Tommy Prothro.

 Baker guided the OSU football team as a dual-threat quarterback. In 1962, he passed for 1,738 yards and ran for 538 more. The team reached the Liberty Bowl and beat Villanova 6-0 thanks to a 99-yard touchdown run by Baker. He won the Heisman Trophy, was voted college player of the year by the Associate Press and Sporting News and was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, which described him as a “James Bond in shoulder pads.”

The Beavers were not in the running to reach the Rose Bowl as the Pacific Coast Conference had disbanded in 1959 and OSU, along with Oregon, wouldn’t join what immediately became known as the Pac-8 until 1964.

The OSU basketball team played its way into the 1963 Final Four behind a standout line-up that included Mel Counts and Jim Jarvis in addition to Baker.

The Los Angeles Rams made Baker the first pick of the 1963 National Football League draft, but he started just one game and scored just three touchdowns in three seasons. He played one season, 1966, for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League before retiring to become a lawyer.

Baker was inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class in 1980. He has also been inducted to the Oregon State University Hall of Fame, College Football Hall of Fame as well as the National High School Athletics Hall of Fame. OSU has retired his jersey number, 11.

Baker lives in Portland.