Zeb Baker's collection of miniature football helmets in his office tells a story
The executive director of the Honors College says the unique display has become a conversation piece
Zeb Baker's collection of miniature football helmets in his office tells a story
This is the first of an occasional feature in Miami Matters about where we work at Miami. Have an idea about an interesting or cool office space we should spotlight with a story or video? Share your ideas with us at kisselm@MiamiOH.edu.
Zeb Baker jokes that his office in Peabody Hall “looks like an equipment room.”
The 24 miniature football helmets give off that vibe.
But there’s a reason the executive director of Miami University’s Honors College has a display case containing helmets representing several universities — and an autographed Georgia Southern University football.
“I have lots of mini helmets and other mementoes of the many universities with which I have been affiliated throughout my life and career,” Baker said.
His father, Sam Baker, was in college athletics for 38 years, with the last spent as a Division I athletics director at Georgia Southern from 1996 to 2012.
“I have helmets from the places that he worked — William & Mary, Oregon, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Southern — the latter of which is my undergraduate alma mater and where I was a history department faculty member for four years after I finished my Ph.D. at Emory.”
Emory doesn’t have a football program so there is no helmet to spotlight, but he does have a plush version of its mascot, Lord Dooley.
Baker earned his master’s degree from the University of Alabama, a perennial football powerhouse, “so I have lots of vintage Alabama helmets and national championship helmets.”
And, of course, he has Miami helmets in the display case — one from 2013, the year he joined Miami, and a more recent version.
“I also had students attend Harvard, Michigan, and Ohio State,” he said, “and they gave me mini helmets from those universities to thank me for my help and mentorship in getting them placed there for graduate and medical school.”
The helmet display case — an eye-catching backdrop on Zoom calls — is a great conversation starter for anyone visiting his office or chatting before the Zoom meetings start.
“It is a fun way for me to honor my dad, honor my own background in higher ed, and honor some of my favorite former students,” he said.
And those flags on top of the display case?
They represent all of the states where he has lived: Virginia, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia, Alabama, and now Ohio.
