Robert Baker

Bob Baker graduated from Lincoln High School in 1945.  While in high school, he participated in football, hockey, basketball, baseball, and track.

Although he excelled in every sport he played, Baker was best known in hockey.  He played five years of varsity hockey, and in 1945 he led the Prowlers to the finals of the first Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.  Although his team lost by one goal, he was selected as the tournament’s Outstanding Player and was named to the Minnesota All-State Hockey Team.

After high school, he served two years in the military and in 1948 was asked to play on the United States Olympic Hockey Team that competed in St. Moritz, Switzerland.  After his Olympic appearance, he returned to Thief River Falls and played two seasons with the Thief River Falls Thieves.  In 1951 Baker married and started his family of three children.

In 1957 he joined the IBM Corporation in Rochester, MN, where he continued to play hockey for the Rochester Mustangs and was a member of the United States Senior Championship Team in 1958.

In 1965 Baker was transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked for thirty years in the Production Control Department of IBM.

He played 14 years of semi-professional hockey and as of today is the only Thief River Falls native to have played on an Olympic team.  As a former teammate states, “He is the ‘hockey player’ that all Thief River Falls players are compared to!  He looked like Bobby Smith, played like Bobby Orr.”