The first Heisman Trophy winner from the West Coast, Terry Baker (born May 5, 1941) played two varsity sports at Oregon State following a dominant prep career in Portland.
Baker earned plenty of high school fame at Jefferson High school, playing football, basketball and baseball. 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, a college record. He won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Trophy, was voted college player of the year by United Press International and Sporting News and was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, which described him as a “James Bond in shoulder pads.”
This was Tommy Prothro s best team (9-2) but OSU was unable to qualify for the Rose Bowl. They were stuck in the five-year purgatory of being an independent between membership in the Pacific Coast Conference and the Athletic Association of Western Universities (later the Pac-12)
Terry also played three seasons of basketball for OSU, including two post-season trips. After winning the Heisman in December, Baker led a very talented group of hoopsters that included fellow hall of fame members Mel Counts and Jim Jarvis. That team was ranked in the top 10 and reached the Final Four, finishing with a 22-9 record.
The Los Angeles Rams made Baker the first pick of the 1963 National Football League draft, where he saw limited action. While attending law school, he played one season for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League before retiring to pursue the law full time. He was a founding partner of the Portland law firm Tonkin Torp
Terry Baker has also been inducted into the Oregon State University Hall of Fame, National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame as well as the National High School Athletics Hall of Fame and the PIL Hall of Fame. OSU has retired his number 11 jersey.