CofC Athletics Hall of Fame: Robert J. Baker
Robert J. (Bouie) Baker, Class of '32 (Basketball & Tennis)
Robert J. (Bouie) Baker was an outstanding basketball and tennis player for the Maroons from 1929-32. Standing only 5-foot-6, he was the captain and leading scorer of the basketball team each of his three years. In a 1930 comeback victory over the University of South Carolina, Henry Cauthen of The News & Courier described Baker as “dribbling through masses, and hurling himself over the floor in pursuit of the ball…When he found a big, rangy fellow in front of him, and no other recourse, he would leap into the air and shoot for the basket with both feet off the ground!” Cauthen later wrote, “Baker can set and maintain as fast a basketball pace as has been seen on a Charleston floor since the days when Johnny Douglas played for The Citadel.” As a pre-med student, Bouie Baker was president of the senior class and student body, captain of the basketball and tennis teams, a member of the 1930 and 1931 all-state basketball teams, and a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. In 1930, he teamed with Jack Beckman to compete in the National Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, Pa. The duo reached the third round of the doubles tournament. Baker is a past president of the Cougar Club Board.
