lit a candle 21h agoCalled my dad to tell him and he just said "99 years old" like the number itself was the whole eulogy. Apparently the guy was an assistant on those Cincinnati title teams in 61 and 62, way before my time but my dad lit up talking about it.
Their story
Taylor Tay Baker was an American college basketball player and coach whose career was woven into the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and, later, crosstown rival Xavier University. A Hamilton, Ohio, native and 1996 inductee into the James P. Kelly Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame, he died on Tuesday, 29 September…
Taylor Tay Baker was an American college basketball player and coach whose career was woven into the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and, later, crosstown rival Xavier University. A Hamilton, Ohio, native and 1996 inductee into the James P. Kelly Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame, he died on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, surrounded by his family. He was 99 years old, having marked his birthday on 24 September.
Baker graduated from Hamilton High School in 1945 and arrived at Cincinnati as a freshman basketball player in 1947. After only three games he began an 18-month hitch in the U.S. Army, then returned to the Bearcats. As a top reserve he helped Cincinnati's first 20-win teams (23-5 in 1949 and 20-6 in 1950) and three Mid-American Conference championship squads from 1948 through 1950 that compiled a 60-18 record.
He taught and coached at southwestern Ohio high schools including Lebanon, Wyoming and Miamisburg before rejoining Cincinnati in 1959 as an assistant, first under George Smith and then under Ed Jucker. In that staff role he helped the Bearcats to four Final Fours and consecutive NCAA championships in 1961 and 1962. Named head coach in 1965, his first team won the Missouri Valley Conference title and reached the Elite Eight, falling to eventual national champion Texas Western. Over seven seasons he posted a 125-60 record before resigning after the 1971-72 season. He was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1966.
From 1973 to 1979 he coached Xavier, going 70-89 and guiding the Musketeers to their first winning season in twelve years in his third year. His combined college head-coaching record was 195-149. After leaving the sideline he remained active in local sports administration, serving as executive director and board member of the Greater Cincinnati Golf Association, which among other roles runs local USGA qualifying tournaments.
Lebanon High School inducted him into its athletic hall of fame in 2007, and he and the 1965-66 Bearcats were inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. Cincinnati Athletics director John Cunningham said Baker represented the very best of Bearcats athletics as both a player and a coach, and that his pride in the university and the relationships he built never faded.
Cincinnati Athletics said memorial information would be provided when available. Taylor Tay Baker died on 29 September 2026 at age 99, closing a life that spanned the program's rise to national titles and decades of coaching across the city.
Biography adapted from University of Cincinnati Athletics (30 Sep 2026); WKRC/Local12; EN Wikipedia (Tay Baker); Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame notes via UC.
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1Tay Baker, University of Cincinnati basketball coach and Hall of Famer
by People Forever
my grandpa said the same thing, just kept repeating the number