| Editor's
Note: When OSU Sports Information Director John "Johnny"
Eggers (1922-1992) passed away from the effects of
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases on July 31, 1992,
Beaver athletics lost one of its truly historic sports
figures.
Most
long-time fans and school historians credit Eggers
with helping Terry Baker win the 1962 Heisman Trophy,
because, they say, it took a Herculean effort to
convince the nation's Heisman voters that a quarterback
from a school in the remote Pacific Northwest was
good enough to be college football's best player.
Just two months after his death, John's son Kerry,
an award-winning sports journalist with the Oregonian,
was asked by the staff of the Oregon Stater to write
for publication what he remembered about his father.
Below is an excerpt from his September, 1992 remembrance
(Stater, page 20), concentrating on his dad's relationship
with Baker.
By Kerry Eggers, '75
"Dad had warm relationships with many coaches
and athletes during his 30 years at OSU, but none
better than with Terry Baker.
Terry and others have often said he wouldn't have
won the Heisman without Dad's innovative efforts.
I'm not sure that was the case and Dad always insisted
it wasn't...that Terry was simply too good not to
have won it.
But Dad took pride in Baker becoming the first person
west of the Mississippi to win the award, and he
maintained a friendship with Terry throughout the
years, never, for example, forgetting to send out
a birthday card. Dad liked Terry's humility and
the way he carried himself.
Terry once told me: "I knew my relationship
with Tommy Prothro was different from any other
player he coached and I was very, very close to
Slats Gill. I would put my relationship with Johnny
in that category. We were real comfortable around
each other. I wasn't his contemporary but I felt
close to him. He was a special guy to me."
Dad and Terry looked remarkably alike in appearance,
even though they were, in age, two decades apart.
Part of this was Terry's receding hairline and Dad's
bald plate. He often was mistaken for Terry while
Terry was in school and he took great delight in
it.
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