STORY BY BRIAN NIELSEN
Charleston Times Courier
CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Visitation honoring the late Merv Baker is planned for Wednesday night at the Charleston High School in the gym named after the legendary coach.
By ruling of an NFL official, who also happens to be Merv’s son, Ken Baker, the atmosphere is not to have a sad funeral feeling.
“We want it to be a celebration,” Ken Baker said. “It won’t be sad. People can walk in and pay their respects to Dad. It will be a really fun trip down memory lane. He wouldn’t want a bunch of people standing in line with sad music going on, so we won’t have that.”
Baker Gym is to have tables with photos and scrapbook items of Baker during the 5-8 p.m. Wednesday visitation.
Merv Baker died at age 92 on Saturday night.
Ken laughed while pointing out his father had the vision to wait until his son had a bye week as an NFL replay official and after Eastern Illinois had gotten its afternoon Homecoming football win out of the way.
Maybe not that many remember or realize Merv Baker earned at least 12 letters as an EIU athlete participating in football, basketball, baseball, track and golf.
More knew him as Charleston High School’s football, basketball and track coach from 1953 through 1970 and then athletics director for two more decades.
The Hall of Famer received about every honor an Illinois high school coach and athletics director could, including the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s prestigious Buzzy O’Conner Award. Baker compiled a 322-148 record in basketball and a 97-33-9 mark in football coaching from 1953 through ’70, turning programs that had been losing into winners.
But athletes and coaches are quick to point out the records were not the main story for Merv Baker.
“There were only four sports at Charleston High at that time and he was the coach of three of them,” Pete Love, a 1958 Charleston graduate, said. “For 17 years he was the dominant sports figure. I think he changed everybody who played for him for the better. He was a molder of character. He had a tremendous impact on people on how you were supposed to act and be teammates. Those are things you use throughout your life. He was a dominant personality. He shaped a lot of people and cared for a lot of people. It’s hard to describe him because he was larger than life.
“I’m sure everyone will say he affected them in some positive way. He made them a better person or made you feel better about yourself. He was a winner as a coach and a winner as a person; a great, great teacher of values to young men. He was a unique person. That’s the kind of person you meet once in your life. He should be a model for everyone who wanted to be a coach. The value of athletics, that would be Merv Baker. Just remarkable. He was a father figure to many and a good friend to everybody. Whether it was a great athlete like Bob Thomas or someone very average like me, he had a great impact on their lives.”
Thomas, a 1957 graduate, was one of Charleston’s sports stars but noted more than just on-field success when reflecting on his coach.
“Nobody will ever be the same as Coach Baker,” Thomas said. “He was quite a coach and quite a person. We had some good teams, good teammates and good players.
“He instilled into me a lot of things about doing things right, treating people right, giving it all and competing in something. Things like that I’ll never forget. He was almost like a father figure to me.”
Ken Baker had Merv as both a father and a coach.
“What he always emphasized was he would much rather have a good kid than a great player,” Ken Baker said.
That continued past Baker’s coaching days into administration days touching others.
“What a love for youth and for athletics,” said Charleston football coach Brian Halsey, who was an athlete when Baker was the school’s athletic director. “Here’s a guy who coached three sports and in addition to that, my first experience with Coach Baker was in T-ball, the organization of minor leagues and on up.
“Good family man, an excellent role model. I looked forward to seeing him at school when I was a student and I loved having him come out and talk to our team when I was a player and a coach. Every time you mention his name my left elbow twinges a little bit from where he squeezed it when he talked to you. A True Trojan.”