Baker, "Hobey" (Hobart A. H.)
Hockey
b. Jan. 15 1892, Wissahickon, PA
d. Dec. 21, 1918
Baker was a rover, the seventh player in the days of seven-man hockey. He also took part in football, golf, swimming, and track at Princeton, captaining the football team in 1913, when he was named a third-team All-American halfback by Walter Camp. He had an 85-yard punt return for a touchdown that year and kicked a 44-yard field goal to give Princeton a 3-3 tie against Yale.
But hockey was easily his best sport. The Princeton team was known as "Baker and six other players" during his tenure. After graduating in 1914, he played for the St. Nicholas Arena amateur team in New York. In 1915 St. Nicholas was chosen to play against defending champion Montreal for the Ross Cup, a rare honor for an American team. Baker had 3 goals and 2 assists in the first game, a 6-2 victory. The teams tied at 2-2 in the second game, and Montreal retained the cup by winning the third game 2-1.
A Montreal sportswriter wrote after the series, "A few minutes of Baker on the ice convinced the most skeptical. He could catch a place, and a star's place, on any of our professional teams."
Baker was one of the first pilots sent overseas when the United States entered World War I. After the war had ended, he tested a plane that was having carburetor trouble. It crashed, and he died in an ambulance en route to the hospital.