Hobey Baker Hobart Amory Hare " Hobey " Baker ( January 15 , 1892 – December 21 , 1918 ) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century . Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame , he was also an accomplished American football player . Born into a prominent family from Philadelphia , he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910 . Baker excelled on the university ' s hockey and football teams , and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St . Nicholas Club in New York City . He was a member of three national championship teams , for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914 , and helped the St . Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915 . Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J . P . Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service . During World War I he served with the 103rd and the 13th Aero Squadron s before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron . Baker died in December 1918 after a plane he was test - piloting crashed , hours before he was due to leave France and return to America . Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time and is considered one of the best early American hockey players . When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945 , Baker was named one of the first nine inductees , the only American among them . In 1973 he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame . He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975 , and is the only person to be in both the Hockey and College Football Halls of Fame . F . Scott Fitzgerald idolized Baker and included him as a minor character in the 1920 novel " This Side of Paradise " . In 1921 , Princeton named its new hockey arena the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink . The National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) , the governing body of college sports in the United States , introduced the Hobey Baker Award in 1980 ; it is awarded annually to the best collegiate hockey player . Early life . Baker was born in Bala Cynwyd , Pennsylvania , the second son of Alfred Thornton Baker , a wealthy upholsterer , and Mary Augusta Pemberton , a socialite . Alfred , known as Bobby to his friends , had played halfback while a student at Princeton University in the 1880s , the same school his father had attended . One of Baker ' s ancestors was Francis Rawle , a Quaker who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1688 and became one of the wealthiest members of the city . Baker was named after his uncle , Dr . Hobart Amory Hare , who was the obstetrician at his birth and president of the Jefferson Medical Hospital in Philadelphia . At the age of eleven , Baker and his twelve - year - old brother Thornton were sent to St . Paul ' s School in Concord , New Hampshire . Baker ' s parents divorced in 1907 and both remarried . While at St . Paul ' s , Baker was introduced to ice hockey . Malcolm Gordon , one of the first people to help develop hockey in the United States , was the coach of the school team and recognized Baker ' s skill . Baker was known by his classmates to be an exceptionally fast and agile skater . He spent nights skating on frozen ponds to improve his ability to move with the puck while not looking down . Baker was named to the school ' s varsity team at the age of fourteen and helped St . Paul ' s defeat some of the best prep schools and universities in the United States . In every sport he attempted , Baker soon demonstrated proficiency . His cousin said that Baker swam through water " like some sort of engine " . After his first attempt at golf he was able to score in the low 40s on the school ' s nine - hole course ; after using roller skates for the first time , he was able to perform one - legged stunts within minutes . He once entered St . Paul ' s annual cross - country race for fun and won , defeating some of the school ' s most proficient runners . At the age of fifteen he was named the school ' s best athlete for his skill in hockey , football , baseball , tennis , swimming and track . Most of his former classmates recalled their time at St . Paul ' s with Baker solely by his athletic achievements . Alfred lost much of his savings in the Panic of 1907 and could only afford to send one of his sons to university . Thornton agreed to let his talented younger brother stay in school , a sacrifice that Baker never forgot . Although an above - average student , Baker stayed an extra year at St . Paul ' s in 1909 to allow his father another year to save money . By the time Baker left St . Paul ' s , his sporting achievements had helped make him one of the school ' s most popular students . Princeton . In 1910 , Baker enrolled at Princeton University . Along with six other classmates from St . Paul ' s , he lived in a house at 82 Nassau Street in Princeton . He joined the school ' s hockey , football , and baseball teams in his freshman year . The university ' s rules stated that students could only play two varsity sports , so Baker played outfield for the freshman baseball team before he gave up that sport to focus on hockey and football . In one of his first games with the football team , he helped defeat rival Yale when he faked a drop - kick field goal and instead ran the ball for a touchdown . Easily recognizable on the field because he wore no helmet , Baker was referred as " the blond Adonis of the gridiron " by Philadelphia sportswriters . Princeton finished the 1911 season with a record of eight wins and two ties in ten games and won the national championship . During a game against Yale on November 18 , 1911 , Baker set a school record that still stands when he had 13 punt returns for 63 yards . During the 1911 football season Baker scored 92 points , a school record that lasted until 1974 . Princeton finished the 1912 season with seven wins , one loss , and one tie in nine games . As the Princeton hockey team did not have its own ice rink , most of their home games were played in New York City at the St . Nicholas Rink , one of the few facilities in the world with artificial ice at the time . The team finished the 1911 – 12 hockey season with a record of eight wins and two losses in ten games . During his sophomore year , Baker was invited to join the Ivy Club , the oldest and most prestigious of the eating clubs that were at the center of social life at the university . Baker was named captain of the football team in 1913 , his senior year . Princeton finished with a record of five wins , two losses , and one tie . Over his three - year football career with the Tigers , Baker scored 180 points , a school record that lasted until 1964 when Cosmo Iacavazzi broke it in the final quarter of his last college game . Baker caught over 900 punts in his career , and averaged 300 yards in punt returns per game . He was awarded a varsity letter in football five times ; combined with the three letters he earned in hockey , his total was the most that could be earned at Princeton at the time . It was during the 1913 – 14 hockey season , Baker ' s senior year , that his most famous game with Princeton took place . On January 24 , they played Harvard at the Boston Arena . Initially the favorite to win , Princeton had a setback as one of its star players was injured and unable to play , and another was suspended . Baker was repeatedly called offside , as he was too fast for the two replacement Princeton players ( players were required to stay behind the puck - carrier at the time ) . In the " sudden death " overtime , after sixty minutes of play , Baker was not even breathing heavily . The game was the longest college hockey game played up to that point . The final hockey game of Baker ' s Princeton career was at Ottawa ' s Dey ' s Arena against the University of Ottawa on February 28 , 1914 , for the Intercollegiate Hockey Championship of America . Ottawa defeated Princeton by a 3 – 2 score . Princeton won the 1914 national championship after they finished with a record of ten wins and three losses . Statistics were not kept of his time at Princeton , but biographer Emil Salvini estimated Baker to have scored over 120 goals and 100 assists in three years , an average of three goals and three assists per game . As well as skill , Baker was known for his sportsmanship . In a hockey game against Harvard on January 22 , 1913 , Baker suffered the only penalty of his collegiate career , for slashing ; Princeton lost the game 5 – 4 in overtime . He visited the dressing rooms of opponents after every game to shake hands with each player . In early 1914 Baker graduated from Princeton , majoring in history , politics , and economics , and finished with above - average grades . He was named the school ' s best football player , hockey player , and all - round athlete and the man who had done the most for Princeton . The football team had posted a record of twenty wins , three losses , and four ties in Baker ' s three seasons as a member ; the hockey team fared equally well with a record of twenty wins and seven losses . By the end of his football career at Princeton , he had two notable achievements : he had never fumbled a punt , and had never lost to Yale . Post - university years . The summer after graduation , Baker toured Europe as a celebrity correspondent for " The New York Times " , where he wrote about events like the Henley Royal Regatta . Through his Princeton classmates , he was hired by Wall Street insurance firm Johnson & Higgins upon his return to the United States . Soon after , another Princeton graduate offered him a job at J . P . Morgan Bank . Hired onto a two - year trainee program , Baker earned about $ 20 per week . Baker befriended a rich New York socialite , Percy R . Pyne II , who had also attended St . Paul ' s and Princeton . Though ten years older than Baker , they quickly became friends and Pyne allowed Baker to stay at his house at 263 Madison Avenue . Pyne later introduced Baker to Jeanne Marie Scott , a socialite known as Mimi , to whom Baker was briefly engaged late in 1918 . A quiet individual , Baker was embarrassed when bank executives brought important clients by his office to see him . He quickly tired of working in an office job , and looked for ways to alleviate his boredom . Baker found enjoyment outside the office through sports . He joined the St . Nicholas Club , an amateur hockey team in New York , soon after he arrived in the city . Pyne introduced Baker to both polo and auto racing , sports he quickly mastered . Baker remained well known from his time at Princeton ; marquees at his home arena , which was shared with Princeton , often said " Hobey Baker Plays Tonight " . This made Baker uncomfortable and he eventually asked the building manager to take down the sign . Preferring a life out of the public eye , he once told a reporter that he would rather have nothing written about him . In order to leave the arena quickly after hockey games without having to deal with the public , Baker often borrowed Pyne ' s valet and car . During the two years that Baker played hockey with St . Nicholas , he was recognized as one of the best players in the American Amateur Hockey League and named to the post - season All - Star Teams both years . While still with the St . Nicholas Club , Baker was offered a contract by the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association . He turned down an offer of $ 20 , 000 to play three seasons as social conventions prohibited a person of his standing from playing sports for money . On March 24 , 1917 , Baker played his last hockey game at the Winter Garden at Exposition Hall in Pittsburgh . The game pitted an amateur all - star team from Philadelphia , led by Baker , against an all - star team from Pittsburgh ' s amateur leagues . The Philadelphia team defeated Pittsburgh in overtime by a score of 3 – 2 . Baker scored all three Philadelphia goals to net a hat trick . Baker began to tire of playing hockey after 1915 ; the constant physical play of opposing players on the ice had taken its toll , and the growing professionalism of the sport went against his belief that sports should be played for the love of the game . World War I . Looking for new adventures , in 1916 he joined the civilian aviation corps , led by General Leonard Wood on Governors Island off the coast of Manhattan . He often went to the island late in the afternoon after he finished work for the day . Baker found the same enjoyment in flying that he had in sports , but with a more serious aspect . Prior to the annual Yale – Princeton football game on November 18 , 1916 , Baker led a squadron of twelve aircraft , the most to have ever flown in military formation , from two fields over Palmer Stadium , home of the Princeton football team . The planes performed several maneuvers to the delight of the crowd , and Baker landed his plane on the field , becoming the first person to reach a football game by air . The entry of the United States into World War I excited Baker , as it finally gave him a purpose in life and allowed him to make good use of his pilot training . He left the United States for Europe on August 23 , 1917 , among the first group of Americans to do so . Though eager to join the front immediately , Baker was told that he had to be certified by the French . Success in the courses was dependent on how quickly the pilots learned French , the predominant language of instruction . Though he managed to complete all the courses easily , a lack of qualified teachers meant that Baker was first sent to a school in England for more training and then back to France to teach Americans what he had learned in England , in an attempt to create pilots as quickly as possible . This discouraged Baker , who was eager to get into the front lines and fight . Owing to a lack of aircraft supplies , Baker was stuck in Paris , and doubted he would ever get to the front . While in Paris , he was happy to continue seeing Mimi Scott , who had enlisted as a nurse and worked at a hospital in France . Promoted to lieutenant in March 1918 , Baker was finally sent to the front in April and assigned to the 103rd Aero Squadron , formed from former members of the Lafayette Escadrille and Lafayette Flying Corps in January 1918 . Baker helped to bring down an enemy plane for the first time in his career on May 21 , but due to a complicated system of confirming kills , he was not given credit for it . In a letter home describing the battle , Baker said it was the " biggest thrill I ever had in my life " , and compared it to the feeling after a big sports game . Throughout the spring of 1918 Baker continued to lead planes over the front , and continued to see Scott , although he began to have reservations over their future together due to the financial disparity between them . After his first confirmed kill on May 21 , 1918 , the French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre . During the summer , Baker was transferred to the 13th Aero Squadron after its commander , Captain Charles Biddle , requested that he join the squadron as a flight commander . Though reluctant to leave the 103rd , Baker felt that Biddle would not have requested him without confidence in his abilities . On July 20 , the 13th Squadron recorded its first confirmed kill during a flight led by Baker ; he and two other men shot down a German plane . In August , Baker and another pilot were promoted and given command of their own squadron ; Baker was given charge of the 141st Aero Squadron , composed of 26 pilots and 180 enlisted men stationed behind the front line , where they had to wait for equipment to arrive before leaving for the front . Various delays in the arrival of planes and equipment meant that Baker ' s squadron was unable to participate in the final major offensives of the war . In September , Baker became engaged to Scott . He asked Pyne to sell a bond to pay for an engagement ring , and the newspapers in the United States carried headlines that announced the engagement . Early in October , Baker was promoted again and given the rank of captain . The planes and equipment arrived for his squadron soon after . Baker had the planes painted in Princeton ' s black and orange and adopted a tiger for the squadron insignia . He recorded two more kills on October 28 and November 5 , the last of his career ( despite reports at the time of his death , Baker was not an ace , as that required five confirmed kills ) . Around the time of the armistice which ended the war , Baker ' s engagement with Scott was broken off ; Scott then began a relationship with an American diplomat in Paris , Philander Cable . Missing his fiancee and the excitement of the war , he felt directionless ; he dreaded going back to work in an office and considered himself a sportsman rather than a businessman . Though he was scheduled to return to the United States in December , Baker requested and was refused an extension of his time in France . Death . On December 21 , 1918 , Baker received orders to return to the United States . Reluctant to leave France and return to his life in America , he decided to take a final flight at his squadron ' s airfield in Toul . As he went for his own plane , the mechanic brought out a recently repaired one instead , in need of a test flight . The other pilots remonstrated with Baker , but he maintained that as commanding officer he could not let anyone else test the aircraft . In heavy rain , Baker took off and began to level off at 600 feet . A quarter of a mile into the flight , the engine failed . The plane was generally easy to crash - land if necessary , something he had done previously at the cost of a few broken ribs . A few hundred yards from the airfield , his plane crashed nose first into the ground . He was quickly freed from the aircraft by his men , but died in an ambulance minutes later ; his orders to return home were found in his jacket pocket . Baker was buried in a small military cemetery near Toul , but in 1921 his mother had his remains moved to her family plot in West Laurel Hill Cemetery , Bala Cynwyd , Pennsylvania . Though newspapers reported that Baker had died as a result of engine failure , unsubstantiated rumors began to circulate that his death was not accidental . Those who knew him were aware of his reluctance to return to civilian life and his feelings over the loss of Scott . He could have returned to America and played professional sport , where he could have earned far more money than from a job in finance , but his upbringing made that impossible for him . A career in business held no appeal ; during a weekend vacation with a fellow Princeton graduate Baker revealed that he felt his life was over , and he would never again experience the thrills of football or hockey . In 1966 author John D . Davies published a biography of Baker , where he noted a relative of Baker ' s could not see a future for him in the post - war world . However Davies refused to elaborate on what he called the " suicide theory of [ Baker ' s ] enigmatic death , " as he feared that " some of the old guard would be furious if they thought I was trying to prove it . " Legacy . Baker is considered one of the greatest ice hockey players of his era , and the first great American hockey player . He was one of the first nine players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame upon its founding in 1945 , the first American so honored , and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame as one of its charter members in 1973 . Baker was posthumously awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy by the National Hockey League and USA Hockey in 1987 for his contributions to hockey in the United States . In 1975 , he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and is the only person in both the College Football and Hockey Halls of Fame . Baker was also inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 . His popularity was such that , after he enlisted in the military , so many of his fellow Princeton athletes followed his lead that the school had to cancel its hockey team for the 1917 – 18 season ; all five starting players enlisted in the armed forces . Of the eleven players on the team the previous season , nine enlisted shortly after Baker . Baker was also the inspiration for literary works . In his senior year at Princeton , F . Scott Fitzgerald enrolled at the university as a freshman . Though he only spoke to Baker once during their time at Princeton , Fitzgerald idolized him . His first novel , " This Side of Paradise " , has several references to Baker : the main character is named Amory Blaine after Baker ' s middle name , and the minor character Allenby is Baker himself . Mark Goodman ' s 1985 novel " Hurrah for the Next Man Who Dies " is a fictionalized account of Baker ' s life . Baker ' s honors included a citation on March 27 , 1919 , by General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces , for exceptional bravery on May 21 , 1918 , when he brought down his first plane . The Hobey Baker Award was established in 1981 and is awarded annually to the best player in NCAA hockey . The Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award was also created that year and is given to the " all - time great contributors to the game of college hockey " each year . Since 1950 , Princeton has awarded the Hobey Baker Trophy to the " freshman hockey player who , among his classmates , in play , sportsmanship and influence has contributed most to the sport . " When Princeton opened their hockey arena in 1921 , it was named the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink . At St . Paul ' s , hockey players compete for an award known as " Hobey ' s Stick " . Inside the bar of the Nassau Inn in Princeton is a photo of Baker flanked by two other famous Princeton athletes , Bill Bradley and Dick Kazmaier . The Ivy Club , of which Baker was a member , has a painting of him in the living room .