Bill Baker is one of the top athletes to ever play for Otterbein and its football program.

Arriving as a raw talent in 1964, Baker possessed an unbelievable mixture of size, speed and strength that would soon be tough for opposing teams to handle. Playing any combination of guard, tackle, defensive end and inside linebacker, he ultimately became a three-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference selection with second-team honors as a sophomore, junior and senior. This accomplishment is even more impressive considering the conference had 15 teams at the time.

Bill went on to become a Canadian Football League (CFL) Hall of Famer, playing 174 games over 11 seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions. He was a Division All-Star five different times, winning the league’s ‘Most Outstanding Defensive Player’ award at the conclusion of the 1976 campaign.

Feared by the opposition, he warranted the nickname “Baker the Undertaker” as a ferocious defensive end standing 6’3” and weighing 255 pounds. He believed that “your opponents are only as tough as you let them be.”

Baker was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1994 and, in 2006, was named one of the Top-50 players in league history, coming in at 43. He took over as general manager for the Roughriders in 1987 before ultimately being hired as the CFL President in 1988-89.