WTIU Documentaries
Timeless: Don Fischer’s Half-Century Broadcasting IU Sports
Special | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Don Fischer’s journey going into his 54th season as the radio voice of Indiana University sports.
Don Fischer is going into his 54th season as play-by-play radio broadcaster of Indiana University football and men’s basketball. His unlikely story starts as a railroad worker in small-town Illinois who saw a magazine ad about sportscasting. He became a Hoosier icon and a beloved storyteller, the voice of an undefeated basketball season in 1976 and, 50 years later, an undefeated football season.
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WTIU Documentaries is a local public television program presented by WTIU PBS
WTIU Documentaries
Timeless: Don Fischer’s Half-Century Broadcasting IU Sports
Special | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Don Fischer is going into his 54th season as play-by-play radio broadcaster of Indiana University football and men’s basketball. His unlikely story starts as a railroad worker in small-town Illinois who saw a magazine ad about sportscasting. He became a Hoosier icon and a beloved storyteller, the voice of an undefeated basketball season in 1976 and, 50 years later, an undefeated football season.
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>> "Timeless: Don Fischer's Half-Century Broadcasting IU Sports" is made possible by IU Credit Union, honoring Don Fischer, whose voice has connected Hoosier fans to Indiana University athletics for generations.
Banking locations and more at IUCU.org.
Premier Cabinet Design, LLC with owner Michelle Jimenez offering semi-custom cabinetry for residential and commercial projects, with over 30 years of experience in design.
More at premiercabinetdesignllc.com.
Greene & Schultz Trial Lawyers.
Attorneys Betsy Greene, Fred Schultz and Brandon Hall, with officers in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Injury law is our field.
Justice is always our goal.
Learn more at Greeneschultz.com.
Estate and Downsizing Specialists, bringing items to a marketplace of buyers, ensuring market value for everything from fine art to jewelry and rare collectibles.
More at EDSIndiana.com.
And by WTIU members.
Thank you!
>> Don Fischer has done it better than anybody for 53 years as the voice of the Hoosiers.
Here he is.
>> Fernando takes the snap.
They pressure him.
The throw to the end zone, touchdown!
Wow!
What a play!
Sarratt, who made the catch.
And I'm telling you what now, that was some throw by Fernando Mendoza.
♪ >> Antwaan Randle El takes the snap.
Drops straight back again to throw.
Has time.
Looks downfield.
Throws the ball.
Frazier 20 yard line, 15, 10, 5, touchdown!
>> So it's Don Fischer, over all those years, on Indiana basketball and football.
Not only is Don an excellent broadcaster, but the attachment, the familiarity, that voice is a voice you've heard since you were a little kid.
>> Way outside to Watford.
Three on the way.
Oh, it went in!
It went in!
And Indiana wins the ball game!
>> You attach it to so many memories and so many specific calls of specific moments.
No network broadcaster, no matter how competent, can have that relationship.
>> Touchdown!
Unbelievable!
Omar Cooper with a grab, and he put his foot down.
It's a score for Indiana!
>> I know he's been offered lots of different opportunities in lots of different places, but I think his heart has been here.
I mean, he's super loyal to the university.
And I think that was just something that he really -- was really never interested in leaving his legacy here.
I mean, it's just part of who he is.
>> You know, I think I met him after my press conference very briefly, and then Don Fischer's name always pops up.
He's such a legend here.
He's loved -- beloved by the IU fan base.
>> Bob Knight and Dave Smith once again shake hands at mid-court as they are introduced to the crowd on hand here.
We're about set for the basketball game.
The right side, against Jordan and Jordan is called for his fifth.
He's out.
Michael Jordan, the player of the year, has fouled out of the game.
And Alford comes over to shake his hand.
>> Play-by-play broadcaster for 53 seasons and more than 2200 games.
Voice indelibly connected to the Hoosiers by legions of fans.
That includes those among the 800,000 living graduates who attended the school while he was calling games.
>> One of the extraordinary things about Don's career is that he served in this role long enough to have had 93% of the world's largest alumni body have him be their voice.
>> And that voice spans generations, from fans who grew up listening to him, to the father and son who both shared the mic with him.
>> It's just an absolute joy to work with him, but to also see he's just been a part of their Indiana basketball experience and football experience, ever since he's been doing it.
That's just the legacy that he's built over the years.
It's really fun to be around it.
>> I coached Anthony Thompson, and I've been invisible two times in my life.
Whenever I'm with Anthony, I was invisible.
And whenever I'm with Don Fischer, I'm invisible.
I haven't been kicked out of the way to get to Don yet, but I have been shoved aside a few times.
>> The passionate fans that come up to him and tell him stories of the first time they listened to an Indiana game on the radio, and they turned down the TV volume and listened to the radio for the last 30 years.
>> -- fourth of the afternoon, and that wins it for Indiana!
[ Cheers ] >> Turning down the TV volume to listen to Don's play-by-play on radio became so common, it inspired a song.
>> It was Don's 40th year.
I just thought, my gosh, only two things were a constant from 1972 to 2012.
One was Assembly Hall, and the other was Don Fischer.
Everything else had changed.
>> Don and his twin brother Dave grew up in Rochelle, Illinois, a rural town in the north central part of the state.
>> I was the first one out.
[ Laughter ] An hour and 20 minutes.
My mother did not know that she was having twins.
>> This is 1946, you know.
Just so you know.
>> Right.
1946, yeah.
So I was first one out.
I was a little over 4 pounds.
He came out, he was 6 or 7.
>> Six.
>> Six, yeah.
>> 6.7 pounds.
>> He stayed -- and he stayed that way.
[ Laughter ] He's larger than life.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> This is -- this is little league baseball.
That's me.
That's my twin brother in the picture there.
>> Growing up in the 1950s and '60s, the twins played every sport, but their paths eventually separated as Dave found his calling to ministry early in high school.
Don, however, took more time finding his way.
>> Because I was not a great student.
Dave was a much better student than I was.
I didn't care about school very much.
I did some pretty stupid things in high school and stuff like that, but the fact of the matter is, I always wanted to be involved with sports, but I just didn't know how to go about it.
>> It was on the youth baseball diamond that Don started doing play-by-play.
>> But I wasn't thinking about being a broadcaster or anything like that, until a few years later, when I started playing in the outfield occasionally, and got bored and started doing play-by-play, what was going on at the plate.
>> After graduation, Don worked various jobs.
Living in Rochelle, he found a job at a railroad.
That could have been his career.
But he saw an ad in "Sport" magazine.
He ordered the vinyl record collection for a steep cost and started the lessons that would launch a legendary career.
>> He took an LP class on records to learn how to annunciate and speak, but he did it religiously.
There was a passion there to do something, play-by-play, sports, things on this order.
He wanted to do it, and he went after it.
>> Don grew up listening to Cardinals games on KMOX in St.
Louis.
Baseball broadcasting legend Harry Caray was one of his inspirations.
>> Down the stretch from the belt.
Here's the pitch.
Lines it!
It is into left field!
Hit number 3,000!
A run is scored!
Musial around first on his way to second with a double!
Holy cow, he came through!
>> Here's the snap back.
Here's the kick.
He's got the leg into it.
If it is good... And it is!
Austin Starr, a 49-yard field goal and Indiana wins 27-24.
>> After a stint in Butte, Montana, Don landed his first sports broadcasting job in Ottawa, Illinois.
To get the job, he exaggerated his play-by-play experience, but his debut was a flop.
He was given three weeks to improve.
>> The guy that helped me was a guy named Art Kimball.
And Art Kimball spent five hours with me after the first game that I did in Ottawa, which was the worst broadcast in history.
And Art Kimball helped me immensely.
Three weeks later, I still had a job.
>> After a short time in Springfield, Illinois, Don went to WBOW in Terre Haute, where he called everything from little league baseball to Indiana State University sports.
In 1973, Indiana University began selling its sports broadcast rights to a commercial network, with WIRE in Indianapolis becoming the flagship station.
>> About a week after I submitted my resume, they wanted me to come to Indianapolis to have an interview.
So I came to Indianapolis.
Don Nelson and Bill Robinson was the program director and the morning guy at WIRE.
And he said, we think that you've got a chance to be the guy after the interview, and I said, well, I appreciate that.
I went home.
And the next thing I know, they called me up and about four days later and they said, the job's yours if you want it.
And I said, I'm coming.
>> Let's go Hoosiers!
>> In 1973, just before his 27th birthday, Don Fischer began broadcasting IU sports.
♪ His first game was September 15th, 1973.
A football loss to Illinois, where he quickly learned to never call IU the University of Indiana.
Then, as now, that mistake rankled listeners who called the flagship station to complain.
He didn't make that mistake again.
His first basketball game was IU against the Citadel at Assembly Hall.
While the Hoosiers won handily, their volatile coach, Bob Knight, was not happy.
>> They turned the ball over 33 times in the game.
Steve Ahlfeld was on that team.
Years later, I said, after you guys turned the ball over 33 times that -- in that first ball game that I ever saw, I said, what was practice like that week?
He said, you don't want to know.
>> Fischer met Knight in Indianapolis during football season.
The young coach let the even younger announcer know that his loyalty remained with the Hoosiers former play-by-play announcer, Max Skirvin, who became Fischer's broadcasting partner.
>> And I stuck out my hand.
He shook my hand, but he basically looked at me for, like, two seconds and then looked at Max Skirvin.
And the next thing I knew, he had his arm around Max Skirvin, and they walked off together.
And he was, basically, showing me who he was in favor of, because, obviously, he developed a relationship with Max.
And I don't know what the point of it was, other than to tell Don Fischer that Don Fischer better step back a little bit and make sure he's doing all the right stuff.
>> Across the sideline Mike Kimle working right side on the bounce pass comes to work.
>> Listening to a game from his first season, more than 50 years later, the names are different, but hearing Fischer, it sounds as though it could have been from last season.
>> Indiana, off to Buckner.
Buckner will work it the other way with 9 seconds to go.
Quinn driving right side, puts it back in the backcourt.
Fires it off to Ahlfeld.
6 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second.
That's the ball game and Indiana wins it.
Man, oh, man, what a ball game!
>> In 1976, IU basketball rose to heights unmatched ever since.
An undefeated season, and the Hoosiers third national championship.
>> Incredible!
And this Hoosier ball club goes wild.
They know they've won the national championship.
>> There would be two more national championships in basketball, 1981.
>> Now, Wittman inbounds.
It is over!
Indiana wins the national championship for 1981!
>> In 1987.
>> 8 seconds to go.
Baseline jump shot in the air.
Good!
4 seconds 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1!
The Hoosiers have won the national championship!
>> And 50 years after that perfect basketball season, a perfect football season.
>> He's endured through eight head coaches in basketball, and ten head coaches in football.
And IU athletics has had no shortage of drama and challenges over the decades, from a lot of lean years in football, to the firing of a coach whose brilliant, controversial tenure included that famous chair toss.
>> He half deserved it; but nevertheless, he wasn't wrong in what he was saying.
Holy cow!
Knight just threw a chair across the floor and picked up another technical.
And Fred Jaspers is asking for Athletic Director Ralph Floyd to come to the floor.
>> Here's the voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fischer!
>> From Branch McCracken Court here in the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on the IU campus of Bloomington, this is Indiana University Basketball.
>> The way I describe it is Don is like our comfort food.
Whenever anything seems like it's not going well or things aren't going well or -- or there are challenges that we're facing in athletics, particularly, when Don is either in the room or someone hears Don's voice, it makes everyone feel like it's gonna be okay.
>> He's not overly critical, but he's honestly critical, and there's a big difference.
You know, some guys don't like the coach.
So they're gonna try to get their little shots in when they can, and that wasn't Don.
>> In my mind, that's the one thing I've been pretty good at, is being able to adapt to whatever the position required.
>> Through all the change, what Fischer has kept consistent is using the stick microphone.
While most broadcasters moved to headsets long ago, he says he wants to hear the crowd.
[ Cheers ] >> He doesn't have any fake in him, none.
You know, so many people on the radio or TV -- you know, TV folks get called hair sprays; radio voice, tracer voice -- you know, that kinda thing.
He's just -- he's just who he is.
>> Far side, one near.
He's going to throw it -- it's picked up by Fisher.
He's gonna go the distance!
Touchdown!
>> IU's national championship football season supplied several moments that will live in the memory of Hoosier fans.
Sometimes an iconic call can be anticipated, knowing the moment could happen when an improbable perfect season and national championship are all but won, but Fischer's calls aren't scripted.
>> Here's the snap back.
Beck looks, throws it down the field and it is intercepted by Indiana!
Wow!
What a play!
And it is Jamari Sharpe who comes up with a pick, and he runs into the end zone.
>> Totally spontaneous.
I have never tried to figure out, this is a big game now, and boy, I got to really be good at it.
And I've never thought that way.
What you do in play-by-play is you react to what you see.
You'll hear the best broadcasters in the business simply do that.
They will not try to, you know, know exactly what they're going to say if this is a big win or that kind of thing.
>> I saw him in the locker room after the game, and Don -- the look on Don's face was just so happy and just so much joy, and just kind of, can you believe it?
>> I think he was relieved it was over, but -- but you can see it in his face how -- how incredibly overwhelmed he was.
>> 54 years of being in -- at Indiana, and going through 45 years of attrition with football, having this success in basketball and then having the success we had the last two years in football was a dream come true.
>> Those are pretty much our first memories of him, at least it is for me, is him being on the radio.
And I was as big a fan of him, and was in awe of what he was doing and being in that kind of a program was -- was incredible.
>> Fischer is a married father of four, grandfather of 14, and great grandfather of 3.
He is one of five living generations of the Fischer family, including his mother, who recently turned 100.
>> We were really blessed to have him as a dad.
It has nothing to do with what he does as a career.
He's just a great man, great father.
>> Despite a busy career in broadcasting and a rich family life, Don still has time to pursue his own interests.
>> Throughout the summer, that's one of his big passions, is the game of golf, and that's one thing that we share together.
I mean, I love golf too, and we're able to each summer get out and play together and enjoy the game.
And then during the season, after the basketball games are over, we're talking about golf and the spring and when we can play again.
>> I love playing golf.
My brother has been a better golfer than me his whole life, and it really ticks me off.
Because we're twins and we fight and we argue at who is better at this, and who is better at that, that kind of thing.
I've beaten him many times, but not as many times as he's beat me.
>> While golf might seem a powerful lure toward retirement, Don Fischer is going into his 54th season at IU, just a few weeks away from his 80th birthday.
>> He's going strong.
I see him having 10, 15 good years left.
He looks younger every day to me.
>> He can go forever.
He's still really good and he's still got great energy.
>> Here we go.
Intercepted.
D'Angelo Ponds, touchdown!
>> All right.
Thank you.
>> Nice to meet you.
♪ >> This must be the documentary?
The real life documentary?
>> I guess.
>> You're going Hollywood on us?
Hollywood now on us, Don?
>> Trust me, that will never happen.
See you guys.
♪ >> Just in college sports in general, and certainly at Indiana, that can sort of trace their roots back that deep; that have seen as much as he's seen; that have been for how many generations, the voice of a lot of those moments, those sort of core memories that sports fans have, it is a remarkable career to consider, and one that, yes, probably will not, you know, unfortunately, be replicated by many people going forward.
>> I'm 79.
I believe that I've been able to do this because I've had my health for almost my entire life.
I've been blessed with genes from family members that are notorious for having longevity.
So from that standpoint, I've not decided to retire.
I thought about it a little bit, but I can say that this football success has rejuvenated me in a lot of ways, and I would love for the basketball to do that as well, but I can't tell you I'm gonna be around long enough to see that one.
When I'm on the microphone doing play-by-play on the radio, trying to paint a picture for the fan base or for whoever out there is listening, that's what -- that's what I live for.
>> Are we good?
>> Mm-hmm.
♪ We got lots of fans, I'm one for sure ♪ ♪ Still turn down the TV to turn up Don ♪ ♪ Every true IU fans' wish, Ol' Fisch ♪ ♪ Let's hear you, Don ♪ >> The Hoosiers look like they're going for the last shot.
Alford, trying to work himself free.
Down to Daryl Thomas.
8 seconds to go.
On the side, baseline jump shot in the air.
Good!
4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1, the Hoosiers have won the national championship!
♪ Now, for 40 years, he's called them all ♪ ♪ He's watched those banners being hung in the hall ♪ ♪ There's just not much that he's not seen, I guess ♪ >> Unbelievable!
♪ Well, he called the shot, he even called the chair ♪ ♪ That undefeated season, yep, Don was there ♪ ♪ When it comes to play-by-play, Ol' Fisch is best ♪ >> Score!
♪ Now, he's cream and crimson through and through ♪ ♪ He's the golden voice of old IU ♪ ♪ And when he's gone, friend, it just won't be the same ♪ >> Hit wide.
♪ So here's the tip of the hat to Mr.
Don ♪ ♪ A mighty big fish in the IU pond ♪ ♪ He belongs in the Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame ♪ ♪ He's called the games for all these years ♪ ♪ Through the ups and downs and the -- ♪ >> If you don't mind, if you can.
>> You're not selling them, are you?
>> No.
You can have them if you'd like, if you would like a copy.
>> No, I'm just kidding.
>> Okay.
>> Because if you're selling them, you're ripping people off.
You know that, right?
[ Laughter ] >> In three, two, one.
Hi, everybody.
Don Fischer with the Head Coach's Report and with Curt Cignetti.
And of course, it's brought to you by the IU Credit Union.
This Indiana University football -- oh, hold on a second, Coach.
I gotta start this again.
That was horse crap.
I apologize.
Hold on.
>> I mean, we talked about how good he is at golf, but I mean, I -- he still can't beat me on a regular basis.
So we could slip that in at the end, in maybe the bloopers or something.
That would be nice for me.
>> Go Fisch!
>> Unbelievable!
>> "Timeless: Don Fischer's Half-Century Broadcasting IU Sports" is made possible by IU Credit Union, honoring Don Fischer whose voice has connected Hoosier fans to Indiana University athletics for generations.
Banking locations and more at IUCU.org.
Premier Cabinet Design, LLC, with owner Michelle Jimenez offering semi-custom cabinetry for residential and commercial projects with over 30 years of experience in design.
More at premiercabinetdesignllc.com.
>> Greene & Schultz Trial Lawyers.
Attorneys Betsy Greene, Fred Schultz and Brandon Hall, with offices in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Injury law is our field.
Justice is always our goal.
Learn more at GreeneSchultz.com.
Estate and Downsizing Specialists, bringing items to a marketplace of buyers, ensuring market value for everything from fine art to jewelry and rare collectibles.
More at EDSIndiana.com.
And by WTIU members.
Thank you!
Support for PBS provided by:
WTIU Documentaries is a local public television program presented by WTIU PBS