Fact sheet

Ralph "Moon" Baker

• b. June 28, 1902, Rochelle, Illinois
  
• d. August 3, 1977, Portland, Oregon
  
• Buried at Willamette National Cemetery, Portland, Oregon
  
• m. Yvonne, 1941
  
• Attended Rockford (Ill.) High, lettering in football, basketball and track; graduated in 1922
  
• Attended Univ. of Illinois for one year before transferring to Northwestern
  
• Two-time MVP of Northwestern's football team; also played basketball
  
• All-American, 1926
  
• Phi Kappa Psi fraternity
  
• U.S. Army (WW II)
  
• Elks Club
  
• College Football Hall of Fame, 1981
  

A hero off the field as well

From TIME magazine, January 17, 1927:

Ralph ("Moon") Baker, all-American halfback: "En route to gymnasium last week from my fraternity house, Phi Kappa Psi, at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., I heard screams. Clinging to a Lake Michigan pier pillar, her body half submerged in icy water, was Althea Levere, eight, who had fallen in while playing. I waded in; carried her ashore."

"And he never knew defeat once he had made up his mind..."

- Rockford (Ill.) High School annual, 1922