Chadron State College Athletics

He was one of three former CSC coaches to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991. Baker was just 28 years old when he initially came to Chadron State as head football and track coach in 1955, but left after one year to enter private business. After being gone a year, he returned to lead the Eagles to new heights in both of the sports that he coached.
Baker is best remembered for coaching the 1958 football team to a perfect 8-0 record. After switching the Eagles from the T-formation to the single-wing, they won their first game by a 26-20 score and the rest of them by at least three touchdowns. The 1959 team that Baker coached went 6-2.
Baker also led the track team to second-place finishes at the Nebraska College Conference Meet, which featured all the small colleges in the state, in both 1958 and ’59. His ’58 team with just 14 members came within seven points of beating Kearney State’s 58-man squad for the title.
After leaving CSC in 1962, Baker was an assistant football coach for nine years at the University of Wyoming, where he played football, and two years at the University of Arizona . After that, he was a scout for several pro football teams during the next 25 years. He now lives in Tuczon, Ariz., and organized a 50-year reunion of the ’58 football team in 2008.