NJCAA celebrates Black History Month: David Baker
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Charlotte, NC – To honor and celebrate Black History Month, the NJCAA will highlight former African-American student-athletes who seized their NJCAA opportunity, using it to build towards a revolutionizing career in athletics. The NJCAA's latest spotlight highlights an alumnus who continues to make an impact beyond his college experience. Dave Baker, a former student-athlete at Coffeyville (KS) and coach at Seward County (KS), left a major impact on the athletics community, especially the African American community, excelling in his time as a basketball player and eventually as a baseball coach.
Born and raised in Manhattan, KS, David Baker spent his youth playing and excelling in both basketball and baseball. He experienced such a good high school baseball career that he received an offer to sign with the Detroit Tigers before having attended college. As enticing as the offer was, his father, Jesse Baker, knew the importance of a college education and advised that David earn a degree before furthering his athletic career.
Baker chose to attend Coffeyville Community College as a member of the men's basketball team, roughly three hours away from his hometown. His aunt Lucille owned a nursing home close by to the campus, which was the largest black-owned nursing home in Kansas at the time. She also resided a block away from the campus, making the decision easy for Baker.
His head coach, Jack Hartman, was a tough but supportive coach which Baker took a liking to. Baker quoted Hartman saying, "If you are afraid of me, know that I am helping you to be a better player. I can't put you out there if you are more afraid of me. You should be afraid of your opponents." Baker quickly grasped on to Coach Hartman as his stern but honest coaching style would eventually lead the Red Ravens to one of the most successful seasons in school history. They went a perfect 32-0 on the season, leading to the first championship in the program's short history. Baker wasn't a starter but played a supplemental role off the bench. After the season was over, Hartman left to coach for Southern Illinois which led Baker to leave and return home to Manhattan, KS.
With his love for baseball still in the back of his mind, he decided to use his final year of eligibility at Emporia, earning his master's degree in the process. Baker's journey was not done there, though. After graduating, he accepted a job as an assistant basketball coach at Seward County Community College for a year. He impressed so many people in that year that he made the jump from NJCAA to an NCAA Division I institution, earning jobs as both an assistant baseball and assistant basketball coach. He once again turned the heads of many as he was eventually promoted to the head baseball coach, a title he would hold for the next six years. In earning that title, he became America's first black head baseball coach of a traditionally white college institution.
His lengthy but impressive coaching resume found his last NCAA stop at his hometown university, Kansas State. Baker held that position for six more years until deciding to take the head position at NAIA member Bacone College in Muskogee, OK. After a 12-years stint at Bacone, Baker decided it was time to retire from coaching. Baker still remains the sole African-American head baseball coach in Big 6, Big 7, Big 8, and Big-XII history. He was later inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame.
David and his wife Sonya returned to Manhattan, KS once again and retired for a short period of time before unretiring and accepting a position as the Director of the Douglass Recreation Center, a place he frequented often in his youth. He remains the director to this day.
David Baker did not let the racial tension in America deter him from accomplishing anything and everything he set out for himself. Instead, he chose to be a pioneer and lead the way for future African-American coaches and student-athletes alike.