Hobey Baker - Post-university Years

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.