Baker Memorial Rink is dedicated to the legendary Hobart Amory Hare Baker '14, one of Princeton's finest athletes. He was an All-American halfback noted for his headlong habit of catching punts on the run (and without a helmet), yet he found his true greatness in hockey. In his day he was regarded as the greatest amateur hockey player ever developed in North America. No other player had his uncanny ability to weave in and out of the opposing defense, constantly changing his pace and direction. As he would take the puck behind the Princeton goal and set fly on one of his rink-long rushes, the crowd would yell, "Here he comes!" When he continued his amateur career with the St. Nick's Club in New York, the sign "Hobey Baker Plays Tonight" would go up, and the line of limousines would stretch for blocks. A fighter squadron commander in the First World War, he met an ironic death testing a repaired plane with his orders home in his pocket. A memorial service was held at the University, in which President Hibben declared, "The spirit of the place was incarnate in him, the spirit of manly vigor, of honor, of fair play, and the clean game." Later a $250,000 campaign for an artificial-ice rink was announced as his memorial, the first collegiate rink in this country. It was an intercollegiate effort; 1,537 men from thirty-nine colleges contributed, including 90 from Yale and 172 from Harvard. The building is in the familiar Gothic mode, made of random ashlar Princeton stone with pointed arches and mullioned windows. An illuminated case standing in the lobby contains Hobey's picture, his skates, his pucks, and his biography.

John D. Davies

Source: Leitch p. 37 ff

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