Ralph "Moon" Baker (June 28, 1902 – August 3, 1977) was an American football halfback in college. He was the team captain of the

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

football team, leading them to the Big Ten championship in 1926. Baker was an All-American along with teammate Bob Johnson. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...

in 1981. Baker, a native of Rockford, Illinois, played one year at Illinois (alongside

Red Grange Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American professional American football, football Halfback (American football), halfback who played for the Chicag ...

) before transferring to Northwestern. He played both football and basketball for three years. After years as the conference doormat, the football team rallied behind Baker's "triple threat" abilities to a second-place finish in 1925 and the conference title in 1926. (Source: Press Release (no title), National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, 28 January 1981) He once said that his greatest thrill was the day he kicked two field goals against Notre Dame. "The Four Horsemen were playing for them then, you know," he said. The sophomore drop-kicked field goals of 34 and 36 yards in the 1924 game at Soldier Field in Chicago to give his upstart Wildcats the lead. However, the Irish rallied to win the game 13–6. Baker's school record of seven field goals in one season stood until the 1960s. (Source: Rockford ''Register-Star'', "Moon Baker: Former Northwestern All-American was 'happy-go-lucky, determined and strong', 18 September 1977, Page F3)

Myths and legends

Baker is occasionally reported to have been a member of

Curly Lambeau Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau ( ; April 9, 1898 – June 1, 1965) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Lambeau, along with his friend and fellow Green Bay, Wisconsin native, George Whitney ...

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

in the 1931 season. However, it was most likely that he was in those instances being of confused with fellow Northwestern alumnus and

Phi Kappa Psi Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1852. The fraternity has over ninety chapters at accredited four-year colleges and uni ...

brother Frank Baker. Apparently unrelated to Ralph Baker, Frank Baker played varsity football at Northwestern in 1928, 1929 and 1930, as well as two games at end for the Packers in 1931. (Sources: Northwestern University Archives, "Frank L. Baker (1909-1985) Scrapbook, ca. 1924-1933, Series 31/6/53, retrieved 21 July 2007;
Green Bay Packers History: All Time Roster
retrieved 21 July 2007) Less mystery surrounds his nickname, however. "Do you remember

Moon Mullins ''Moon Mullins'' is an American comic strip which had a run as both a daily and Sunday feature from June 19, 1923, to June 2, 1991. Syndicated by the Tribune Media Services, Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate, the strip depicts the lives of ...

?" he asked in a 1951 interview, referring to the famous comic strip. "Well, I knew

Frank Willard Frank Henry Willard (September 21, 1893 – January 11, 1958) was an American cartoonist best known for his syndicated newspaper comic strip ''Moon Mullins'' which ran from 1923 to 1991, working alongside assistant Ferd Johnson. He sometimes went ...

, the cartoonist. Every day I used to grab the hicago Tribunein the fraternity house, and I read the cartoon before I looked at sports or anything else." (Source: Rockford ''Register-Star'', "Moon Baker: Former Northwestern All-American was 'happy-go-lucky, determined and strong', 18 September 1977, Page F3)

References

1902 births 1977 deaths American football halfbacks Northwestern Wildcats football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Rochelle, Illinois Players of American football from Rockford, Illinois 20th-century American sportsmen {{runningback-1900s-stub