View source for Dave Baker (American football)

{{Short description|American football player (1937–2002)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox Canadian Football League biography
| name          = Dave Baker
| number        = 25
| image         = Baker-Dave-1961.jpg
| size          =
| caption       = Baker in 1961
|Position=[[Safety (gridiron football position)|Safety]], <br>[[Punter (gridiron football)|Punter]]
|birth_date={{Birth date|1937|07|30}}
|birth_place=[[Coffeyville, Kansas]], U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2002|09|4|1937|07|30}}
|death_place=[[Norman, Oklahoma]], U.S.
| height_ft     = 6
| height_in     = 0
| weight_lbs    = 192
| high_school   =
|College=[[University of Oklahoma|Oklahoma]]
|DraftedYear=1959
|DraftedRound=1
|DraftedPick=5
|AFLDraftedYear = 1960
|AFLDraftedRound = Second Selections
|AFLDraftedTeam = [[New York Jets|New York Titans]]
|DatabaseFootball=BAKERDAV01
|PFR=BakeDa00
|Honors=
|Awards=
|Records= Most passes intercepted in a single game: 4 (tied)
|playing_years1=1959–61
|playing_team1=[[San Francisco 49ers]]
|career_highlights =
* [[College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS|National champion]] ([[1956 Oklahoma Sooners football team|1956]])
* Second-team All-[[Big Eight Conference|Big Eight]] ([[1958 All-Big Eight Conference football team|1958]])
|ProBowls=1
| statlabel1  = Games played
| statvalue1  = 38
| statlabel2  = [[Starting lineup|Starts]]
| statvalue2  = 37
}}
'''Dave Baker''' (July 30, 1937 – September 4, 2002) was a [[defensive back]] in the [[National Football League]] (NFL), playing for the [[San Francisco 49ers]] for three years.<ref>{{cite web|title=49ers Year by Year history|url=http://prod.static.49ers.clubs.nfl.com/assets/docs/Team/year-by-year-results.pdf|work=49ers Year by Year|access-date=January 3, 2014|archive-date=May 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525171035/http://prod.static.49ers.clubs.nfl.com/assets/docs/Team/year-by-year-results.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Biography==
David Baker grew up in [[Bartlesville, Oklahoma]], earning All-State honors in football, basketball and baseball. He enrolled at the [[University of Oklahoma]] in 1955 under legendary coach [[Bud Wilkinson]]. During his three years of eligibility (freshmen were not eligible in 1955), the Sooners went 30–2, were in the midst of their 47-game win streak (still an NCAA record), and won the Big 7 conference title all three years. Players played both ways at the time, Baker playing defensive back, quarterback and running back. In 1959, he was drafted into the NFL as the fifth pick of the 1st round by the San Francisco 49ers. In the last 40 years of Sooner football (226 NFL draft picks), only [[Lee Roy Selmon]], [[Billy Sims]] and [[Tony Casillas]] have been drafted higher. Baker played [[safety (gridiron football position|safety]] for the 49ers for three seasons (1959–1961) and still holds the 49ers interception per season record, making 21 career interceptions, an average of seven per season.
In his 1959 rookie season, he was selected to the NFL All-Pro team. [[Monte Clark]], an All-Pro tackle with the [[Cleveland Browns]] and later an NFL head coach, spoke to the 1965-66 SNU basketball team and stated, “In my fifteen-year NFL pro career, David Baker was the hardest hitting and best defensive back I have seen in the NFL.”
After serving two years in the U.S. Army, a return to the NFL to a signed contract seemed imminent, but a different path would be charted. Dr. Roy Cantrell, president of Southern Nazarene University, called, asking for a meeting to discuss with David the possibility of coming to SNU to begin intercollegiate athletics and be a professor of physical education. The position would include being the first athletic director and head basketball coach. Forsaking a lucrative NFL contract and all of its amenities, David and Edna Baker came to Bethany, signed an SNU contract worth $3,600 annually and began a dream.
With no intercollegiate program, no scholarships and no budget, Coach Baker set out with a vision that SNU could become one of America's finest small college athletic programs. At age 27, with a background in the country's finest collegiate football program (OU) and the NFL (49ers), Coach Baker believed that the greatest impact and athletic experience could happen where athletics in a "Christian atmosphere” thrived.
During Coach Baker's tenure (1964–1974) a long list of significant accomplishment occurred: the first two men's basketball seasons had winning marks (men's basketball was the only intercollegiate sport for four years); the Benchwarmer Club was formed in 1968; the first scholarships awarded in 1969; the Redskin Revolution to change the course of sportsmanship in society occurred (a new method of introducing players was introduced, which later was adopted by high school, college and pro teams across America); sports were added to include women's basketball, baseball, women's volleyball, men's and women's tennis.
On the basketball court, the innovation of the big man playing the point on the 3-2 zone defense was introduced in Broadhurst in 1971, to be copied around America at every level. The Spokesman Bicycle Tour group was formed to give hundreds of high school and college age kids a life changing experience in pedaling across America. In 1970, a goal was set to achieve a national title within a decade (it actually occurred in a decade plus one, 1981, in men's basketball under Head Coach Dr. Loren Gresham). Coach Baker set an athletic program on course with the assurance that “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).<ref>{{cite web|title=SNU Athletic Hall of Fame Page|url=http://www.snuathletics.com/hof.aspx?hof=1&path=&kiosk=|work=Southern Nazarene University Website|access-date=January 3, 2014}}</ref>
==Head coaching record==
{{CBB Yearly Record Start
| type       = coach
| conference =
| postseason =
| poll       = no
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Subhead
|name=[[Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm men's basketball|Bethany Nazarene Redskins]]
|startyear=1964
|endyear=1969
|conference=
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Entry
| season       = 1964–65
| name         = Bethany Nazarene
| overall      = 8–6
| conference   =
| confstanding =
| championship =
| postseason   =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Entry
| season       = 1965–66
| name         = Bethany Nazarene
| overall      = 8–9
| conference   =
| confstanding =
| championship =
| postseason   =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Entry
| season       = 1966–67
| name         = Bethany Nazarene
| overall      = 0–14
| conference   =
| confstanding =
| championship =
| postseason   =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Entry
| season       = 1967–68
| name         = Bethany Nazarene
| overall      = 9–10
| conference   =
| confstanding =
| championship =
| postseason   =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Entry
| season       = 1968–69
| name         = Bethany Nazarene
| overall      = 4–15
| conference   =
| confstanding =
| championship =
| postseason   =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record Subtotal
| name       = Bethany Nazarene
| overall    = {{Winning percentage|32|57|record=y}}
| confrecord =
}}
{{CBB Yearly Record End
| overall    = {{Winning percentage|32|57|record=y}}
| confrecord =
}}
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://snuathletics.com/sports/2012/1/23/MBB_0123120224.aspx?id=49|title=SNU Men's basketball coaching history|publisher=SNU athletics|date=January 23, 2012|access-date=June 25, 2024}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Oklahoma Sooners quarterback navbox}}
{{1956 Oklahoma Sooners football navbox}}
{{1959 NFL Draft}}
{{49ers1959DraftPicks}}
{{49ersFirstPick}}
{{NFL season interception leaders}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Dave}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:American football defensive backs]]
[[Category:American football quarterbacks]]
[[Category:Oklahoma Sooners football players]]
[[Category:San Francisco 49ers players]]
[[Category:Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm men's basketball coaches]]
[[Category:Western Conference Pro Bowl players]]
[[Category:Players of American football from Kansas]]
[[Category:People from Coffeyville, Kansas]]