THOMAS N. BAKKE, MAJ, USAF
Thomas Bakke '52
Lucky Bag
From the 1952 Lucky Bag:
Thomas Neil Bakke
Denver, Colorado
It was said that some of the Navy's best material came from the West; Big Tom was proof. From Colorado, via Denver University's gridiron, came our 1950 varsity football captain; an honor bestowed upon him second class year. In spite of threatening everyone with a lacrosse stick during the spring, he won the respect, friendship, and overwhelming admiration of all hands. Possessing natural ability as a leader, Tom was well saturated with Navy salt as an ensign in the USNR. Perseverance, coupled with his capacity for hard work, emphasizes the value Tom will be to whichever branch of Service he enters upon graduation.
He was also an officer of the Varsity ’N’ club.
Thomas Neil Bakke
Denver, Colorado
It was said that some of the Navy's best material came from the West; Big Tom was proof. From Colorado, via Denver University's gridiron, came our 1950 varsity football captain; an honor bestowed upon him second class year. In spite of threatening everyone with a lacrosse stick during the spring, he won the respect, friendship, and overwhelming admiration of all hands. Possessing natural ability as a leader, Tom was well saturated with Navy salt as an ensign in the USNR. Perseverance, coupled with his capacity for hard work, emphasizes the value Tom will be to whichever branch of Service he enters upon graduation.
He was also an officer of the Varsity ’N’ club.
Loss
Tom was lost when his B-57 crashed on takeoff from Patrick AFB, Florida, on December 10, 1964. The other crewman was also killed.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Thomas worked for Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad in Kansas City, Missouri, until April 20, 1943. He was then in the Navy Reserve until September 27, 1945. He attended the following service schools: Aviation Ordnance School in Norman, Oklahoma; Areo-Gunnery School, Corpus Christi; NARU, Liberty, Missouri; and Iowa University, Iowa City. He was released as an AvCad V5 USNR.
Thomas and his brother Quentin then went to the University of Denver. Thomas was co-receiver of the Big Seven lineman for the first week in November 1947. On November 1, his rushing of the BYU quarterback accounted for several large losses in the University of Denver's victory 20-6.
From The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, January 1, 1954
A 27-year-old jet pilot at Truax Field, Lt. Thomas “Tom” Bakke, is pretty sure that this, his second Madison visit, will be more enjoyable than was his first.
Bakke, nephew of Walt Bakke, University of Wisconsin trainer, has only been stationed at Truax since Dec. 23 and is on 24-hour alert as a F-89 (fighter-interceptor) pilot. The F89 is the two-man jet job that carries a pilot and radar observer.
Tom still has memories of his initial Madison visit.
On the occasion, he was an end on Navy's 1949 football team when the Middies invaded Camp Randall for a battle with Wisconsin. It was the first year of the Ivy Williamson coaching regime here.
“That was really a rough afternoon for us,” Tom recalls with the suggestion of a wince. “We got beat bad, 48 to 13 although the game had been rated a 'tossup' at kickoff time.
“I especially remember Red Wilson, a terrific player who was all over the field getting in our hair that day. Wilson was later voted by our team as 'the best player we face' for the '49 season. Then there was a guy named Radcliffe, who seemed to do nothing but intercept our passes and run them back for touchdowns, and another guy named Blackbourn. I guess all he did was kick something like eight out of nine extra-points.”
There were a couple of amusing incidents interjected in connection with Uncle Walt in that game, Tom points out.
“It seems that every time we linked up to receive a kickoff . . . and we were doing that often all afternoon . . . I'd fine myself next to Wisconsin's sidelines. Naturally, being Wisconsin's trainer, Uncle Walt would be right there and giving me the business. He kept calling, 'What's the matter with you Navy guys?'”
But the most unhappy guy on the Navy team after the Badger debacle, according to Tom, was star quarterback Bob Zastrow, a native of Algoma, Wis.
“Bob had been looking forward to the Wisconsin game all season,” Bakke relates, “because his folks and a large group of his hometown friends were making a special trip to Madison to see him do his stuff. Of course, Bob wound up having one of his worst days.”
Bakke was named captain of the Navy eleven as a junior in 1950 and played a key role in the Middies' surprise 14-2 win over Army. That Navy win snapped a 28-game winning string for the Cadets and quarterback Zastrow was the big star in the upset.
In his senior year at Annapolis, Tom did not play football. He was ineligible because he'd participated two seasons at the University of Denver, prior to his entry into the Naval Academy.
He calls Denver “home” although he was born in Galesburg, Ill. The family was “always traveling” because of his father's railroad job, so they saw lots of country. At one time or another, they lived in Illinois, Wisconsin (La Crosse), Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma and then Colorado. Denver has been “home” since 1945.
Keenly interested in a military career, Tom went to Annapolis where he got a limited course in flying. That was enough for the “bug” to bite him, however, so, upon his graduation from the Naval Academy, he transferred to the Air Force. He won his wings last August.
While at Annapolis, Tom discovered another love. She is the former Jean Marshall of Alexandria, Va. She's now Mrs. Bakke, as the young couple were married, about three weeks ago.
Lt. Bakke has a sincere respect for Big Ten football.
“After playing against two Big Ten teams (Wisconsin and Northwestern) in my two seasons on the varsity at Navy, I'd say the Big Ten is the best league in the country,” Tom says. “For instance, the same year we lost to Wisconsin we also played Notre Dame – rated No. 1 in the nation – and lost. But Notre Dame doesn't knock you around and then tromp on you like they do in the Big Ten; Notre Dame's satisfied just to beat you.”
He explains that it has been the practice of Navy to meet one Big Ten team per season along with strong teams representing every other section of the nation. Navy has since severed scheduling relations with the Big Ten, apparently tiring of its consistent beatings.
Incidentally, Tom is an ardent hunting and fishing enthusiast and hopes he can stick around Wisconsin long enough to test this state's alleged reputation for being a hunter and fisherman's paradise.
Thomas married Jean (Marshall) on December 12, 1953, in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia. She was the great-great-great-granddaughter of America's first chief justice, John Marshall.
In March 1955, Thomas was stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the Air Force's Arctic defense system. The 433rd Fighter Interceptor squadron had F89C jets in the hangar. Thomas played football on the Flyers team being their coach in 1954.
Tom was survived by his second wife Dorothy White Tate and five children: John 14, Tom 10, Sarah 8, Susan 5, and Jeannie 2. At the Christmas Cotillion of 1974, Sara was presented as a debutante at the Army-Navy Club in Arlington, Virginia. At the time, her brother Tom was a second year midshipman at the Naval Academy.
From the McLean County News, January 9, 1975: [Sara] “was presented by her brother, Midshipman Thomas Quentin Bakke, who did the honors in full midshipman dress. They got the biggest hand of the evening because most of the audience knew their parents were both deceased. The young midshipman was the only man not the father of the debutante, and in his startling uniform with his happy beautiful sister on his arm was the spectacle of the evening. They were the last couple to pause in front of Dorothy Tate Bakke, their mother, standing proudly with Sara's young escort to receive them. There were a few tears shed by the maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall of Alexandria, her mother Dorothy Bakke who was responsible for her wardrobe, and other details, her great aunt, who came as a member of the family, and maybe in the eyes of the staunch young midshipman who took his father's place.”
Thomas' brothers were Quentin and George Burton, and their sister was Karen (Mrs. John Heiser of Roswell.) Quentin and George Burton attended Northeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1940. All the brothers served in WWII.
From the January 1965 issue of Shipmate: "He will certainly be missed by his classmates. Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing him couldn't help but admire and respect him."
From the February 1965 issue:
Ace Lyons and Red Stein sent in a report of Tom Bakke's funeral:
On a bitter cold 15th of December a large group of classmates and other friends paid their last tribute to Tom Bakke as he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
It is significant that many came from out of town, both civilian and military, to fill Ft. Myer Chapel to capacity. It is difficult to recall all who attended, some were not classmates.
Tom was killed in a plane crash on 10 Dec. The crash occurred almost immediately after takeoff on a routine proficiency flight from Patrick AFB.
Tom and Dorothy Bakke both knew of tragedy. Tom lost his first wife due to a serious illness about three years ago. Dorothy lost her first husband in Korea. Dorothy Bakke is much to be admired for her strength of character and courage. She withstood the tremendous emotional strain with the same fortitude that was so admired in our former first lady a little over a year ago.
Those of us who knew Tom, and were his teammates, feel that his loss is a tremendous waste of human life. One characteristic of Tom dominates our memory of him, expressed simply yet eloquently by Ben Martin: "Tom always gave 110% of himself."
Our deepest and heartfelt sympathy goes out to Dorothy and to Tom's mother and family. It is understood that Dorothy returned to Florida until January then moved to Alexandria.
Tom was an assistant coach at the US Air Force Academy from 1958-1961.
Tom is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with his first wife, who died in 1960. He remarried and was survived by his second wife, Dorothy, and five children.
Photographs
From the Fairbanks Daily News Miner on March 26, 1955
From the 1948 yearbook of the University of Denver
From the Fort Worth Star Telegram on September 1, 1950
From The Capital Times on January 1, 1954
Related Articles
Robert Allison ’52 was also an officer of the Varsity ’N’ Club.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
