A multi-sport star

The Daily Illini

January 4, 1927

MOON BAKER APPEARS AS CAGE PRO, LOSES 37-19

   ROCKFORD, Jan. 3--(AP)--Ralph (Moon) Baker, Northwestern all-American halfback, made his debut in professional basketball here tonight playing with the Burr Athletic Wear team which was defeated by the Chicago Bruins, 37-19.

   Baker proved to have his old skill on the basketball court by caging two field goals and a free throw but the newly organized Rockford quintet was unable to solve the fast passing game played by the Bruins. Rex Enright, former Notre Dame football star, played along with Baker on his home town five but lack of practice left the local team helpless. 

   Tierney and Maloney led the fast passing attack of the Bruins which proved too much for the Burr outfit. 

A week later, an AP story announced that Baker "signed a contract with the Chicago Bruins of the American basketball league."

His success in basketball was not a complete surprise, though. A January 1925 story in the Chicago Tribune noted that "[s]ome accurate basket shooting in the second half on the part of Harold White and Ralph (Moon) Baker brought the Northwestern university quintet a 30 to 21 victory" over Mercer.

Inspiring the name: "Wildcats"

Wallace Abbey of the Chicago Tribune is credited with giving NU's Purple team the nickname "Wildcats" in his November 1924 account of the Northwestern gridders' effort in a close loss to the University of Chicago, coached by the great Amos Alonzo Stagg. Below is Abbey's famous quote from the front page of the Tribune.

It was the fourth quarter of the annual Chicago-Northwestern grid battle.  Football players had not come down from Evanston: wildcats would be a name better suited to Thistlethwaite's boys.  Baker was there, and he was the chief wildcat giving his supreme effort.

Remembered by his teammates

The Tale of the Wildcats: A Centennial History of Northwestern University Athletics, a 1951 book by Walter Paulison, gives an 'official' history of NU football, including the following recollections by some of NU's greatest players. Quotes were collected in 1950 during interviews with some of the oldest surviving players, as well as contemporary Wildcats of the time. The players recounted what were, for them, the greatest and most remarkable moments on the field. James Solheim '27 shared this notable memory:

"When I called for a drop kick from the 42 yard line, one yard from the sidelines in the Notre Dame game of '24 and [Ralph] Moon Baker booted it between the uprights. Moon was nice about such things. I'd call a dumb play and he'd get me out of it with a long run or a great kick."

Frozen all-stars

From the LA84 Foundation college sports archives:

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv01/CFHSNv01n5c.pdf

From 1924 to 1948 Northwestern and Notre Dame met 23 times in a gridiron series that never failed to excite Midwest fans, When it was announced that former stars of the two schools would meet on Thanksgiving Day, 1930 in an all-star game, the contest naturally drew considerable interest. 

The all-star game was actually going to be the opener of a Shriner's doubleheader at Chicago's Soldier Field, with the main attraction being the contest between Oregon State and West Virginia. But to many fans the main event was going to be the all-star game, and as game day arrived the Shriners had an advance sale of 60,000 tickets. The Tribune wryly commented that the alumni players "are expected to provide quite a thrill as long as they last."

Unfortunately, Chicago was hit with a terrific snow storm the day before the game, and only 20,000 fans actually used their tickets to huddle in the near zero cold, snow and wintry blasts of wind that howled around Soldier Field. Because of the conditions each quarter was reduced to seven minutes, and the two all-star squads spent most of the game struggling near midfield as the "grads bounced up and down on the frozen sod like so many rubber balls."

One reporter noted that while "it was too cold and slippery to play the best football, ... several of the big stars of other years still showed that they knew some tricks of the game, with beautiful kicks and long passes that were too slippery to receive." The foremost stars of the game were Jack Elder from the 1929 Notre Dame team, and Ralph "Moon" Baker of 1926 Northwestern. Baker repeatedly boomed punts of 40-50 yards to keep the Notre Dame stars deep in their end. Other Notre Dame standouts were Hunk Anderson, Don Miller, Jack Cannon and Jack Chevigny; while for Northwestern there was Bill Calderwood, Yats Levison and Jimmy Paterson.

When the game mercifully ended the score was still O-O. One player was quoted as saying that "the next time, if ever, we play a game under such conditions we're going to use ice skates." Despite the weather, this had been a magic moment in college football history.

"College HOF Adds 3"

That was the headline in the Ludington (Mich.) Daily News on Jan. 24, 1981.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Three stars from the 1920s -- Ralph "Moon" Baker of Northwestern, Walter Koppisch of Columbia and Herbert "Cobbles" Sturhahn of Yale -- were named today to the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame in the deceased player category.

   They will be officially inducted in special ceremonies on their home campuses this fall and will be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame at Kings Island, Ohio, in August 1982. 

   Baker played one year at Illinois before transferring to Northwestern where he was a triple-threat back for three years (1924-1926). He led the Wildcats to a share of the Big Ten championships in 1926.

   Koppisch, a halfback, had his greatest day against NYU in 1924 when he ran for touchdowns of 76, 67 and 55 yards in one period. He later played professionally with the Buffalo All-Americans and the New York Giants. 

   Sturhahn was a guard at Yale from 1924-26.

More from "The Galloping Ghost"

Red Grange's autobiography, "The Red Grange Story" (1953), describes his adventure making the freshman football squad at the University of Illinois in 1922.

The first day I reported for practice,  I took a look at some one hundred and fifty beefy candidates for the freshman team and became all the more convinced I didn't belong. Without even putting on a uniform, I went back to the fraternity house and complained. "What chance do I have against those guys?" My protests met only with a deaf ear and the threat of a paddling. Under the circumstances, I decided it would be wise to at least give it a try...

Before a week had passed, the squad was culled down to sixty. It was hard for me to believe I was not only still around, but put on the first-string team. The backfield in that number-one line-up included Ralph "Moon" Baker at quarterback, Earl Britton at fullback, Paul Cook at right halfback and myself at left halfback...

It is an accepted fact that the 1922 freshman team was one of the strongest Illinois has ever had. Two members of that squad besides myself subsequently became All-Americans. Ralph "Moon" Baker gained his honors at Northwestern where he transferred after his freshman year. Tackle Frank Wickhorst,  who also left after his freshman year, went on to become an All-American at Annapolis.