The Cincinnati Bearcats basketball family lost one of its icons this week with the death of Tay Baker, who was 99. Baker had turned 99 last week and was the oldest living college basketball coach in America.
Scott Springer of The Enquirer confirmed the news on X Wednesday afternoon.
Baker’s place in Cincinnati basketball history runs deep. He was the first head coach in program history - and one of only two - to win a conference regular-season title in his first season. Long before he took over the program, he was part of the Bearcats’ 1948-49-50 teams as the sixth man on squads that went 60-18 and captured three Mid-American Conference championships.
His path back to UC began after his years coaching in the high school ranks. Baker joined the Cincinnati staff as an assistant in 1959, and later became head coach after the 1966 season. That role followed his time on a staff that helped UC win back-to-back national championships in 1961 and 1962.
Baker also had a rare perspective on the Crosstown Shootout, spending time on both sides of it. After his stint at UC, he coached Xavier from 1974 through 1979.
He was a longtime Cincinnati native, and the words he shared with Springer last year captured the edge that comes with that rivalry.
"I'd be driving down (Interstate) 75 in a blue station wagon with Xavier on it, and a guy would go by and give me the finger," Baker said to Springer in a story from last year. "You expect that with UC and Xavier.
There's nothing wrong with that, really. They don't like each other, and they want to beat each other, and that's the way it should be."
Baker also explained how he ended up at Xavier without having to work through a new contract.
"I was faculty at UC, so all they had to do was transfer that over," Baker said to Springer. "I was never on a coaching salary.
My salary was controlled by the faculty. I was a tenured professor, which was the insurance I had.
I could go from UC to Xavier and have the same status."
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Taylor Tay Bakers death at 99 closes the book on one of the defining figures in Cincinnati basketball history. A former Bearcats player and head coach, Baker left his mark across generations, later coaching at Xavier as well, and his name was already woven into the programs legacy long before the tributes began.
Baker was a 1996 inductee into the Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame and was honored again this year with induction into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. He helped lead Cincinnati to multiple conference titles and NCAA championships as both a player and a coach, and he finished his college head-coaching career with a 195-149 record, a rsum that reflects just how deeply he shaped the sport in this city. [Read more 🡒]
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Scott Satterfield has already pointed to the line's work in the run game, and it's easy to see why the Bearcats feel better about what they have up front. Cincinnati is averaging 270 rushing yards per game, and Milon's emergence gives that success a real anchor on the right side. The larger question now is whether that level of play holds as the schedule tightens and opponents start game-planning around him. [Read more 🡒]