Don Fischer, 'comfort food for' Indiana fans, living IU football dream
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BLOOMINGTON — Hall of fame broadcaster Don Fischer will be in the booth at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday.
That’s his natural habitat having been in the business for more than five decades, but he will be in unfamiliar territory calling Indiana football’s first appearance in the Big Ten title game for the Indiana Hoosiers Sports Network.
Fischer had all but given up on the prospect of IU reaching this stage only for coach Curt Cignetti to upend the college football landscape.
"I honestly never thought it was going to happen,” Fischer said. “I got to the point in the last 10 years, it's never going to happen. I'm never going to go to the Rose Bowl, never get the chance to win a Big Ten championship. I just didn't think it was possible in my heart.”
Like the fanbase, he became accustomed to a never-ending cycle of Indiana rising up and stringing together a handful of solid seasons — the peak of that success came during former coach Bill Mallory’s tenure — only to fall back down to the bottom of the Big Ten.
Cignetti changed that equation from the moment he stepped onto the floor at Assembly Hall, Fischer’s shared stomping ground, and delivered a message the likes of which the radio broadcaster had never seen.
“What he did that night, he gave fans something,” Fischer said of Cignetti calling out his new rivals. “Nobody has ever done that here, or anything like that. He just changed the whole environment of Indiana football then he went out there and proved he could back it up. Show me a place in the country where something like this has happened? I don’t know of one.”
It opened the door to what he described as “surreal” moments for a broadcaster who has called more than 2,000 Indiana games, including five Final Fours. None of that prepared him for what unfolded at the start of the 2024 season with the Hoosiers going 10-0 and reaching the College Football Playoff only to top that success this fall.
“When I look at this program right now and where it's at compared to anything else we've seen at Indiana, there is no comparison, it's that simple,” Fischer said.
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“Mendoza in the backfield back to throw, pressure comes again, he throws it to the end zone and a catch is made. Is it a touchdown? Touchdown! Unbelievable. Omar Cooper with a grab, and he put his foot down, it’s a score for Indiana.”
That was Fischer’s call from the booth at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 8 for Cooper’s game-winning score in the back of the end zone that immediately vaulted into one of the most memorable moments of the longtime broadcaster’s career, regardless of the sport.
Fischer made a direct comparison to another iconic moment in IU history that he was at the mic for — Christian Watford hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer at Assembly Hall to give the Hoosiers a win over an undefeated Kentucky team that was ranked No. 1 in the country.
The easy part of the comparison was the iconic nature of the plays themselves.
Watford posing with his arm in the air as his shot hit nothing but net and Cooper somehow defying gravity to get his toe in-bounds after Fernando Mendoza delivered a perfect ball in the face of pressure, but the backstory to both was just as important.
Indiana basketball was coming off the Kelvin Sampson scandal and three straight losing seasons that started with a 6-25 record, the worst in program history, in Tom Crean’s first season.
“That was a special, special day,” Fischer said. “I don't know if there was a bigger moment for Hoosier nation since we won a national championship.”
Indiana football fans never had the consistent success of the hoops program, but were well accustomed to being in the Big Ten’s basement and had a fresh round of heartbreak in 2021 when a once-promising season immediately went off the rails with a season-opening loss to Iowa.
“It was heartbreaking,” Fischer said. “If there was a team that was really going to make it, and transition IU to a winning football program, it felt like it was going to be that team.”
That lack of success put Cooper’s catch in a category of its own to maintain IU’s perfect season and win in State College for the first time.
“On those three road games that Indiana had, you could have circled all three of those and said these are the downfall of Indiana football this year. To this point, none of those had happened,” Fischer said. “That's what is amazing about it."
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Indiana football’s social media team has assembled a highlight package each week with Fischer’s calls from that game narrating the video. It’s popular content among longtime fans like IU athletic director Scott Dolson.
“I get goosebumps,” Dolson said.
Dolson has been listening to Fischer for as long as he’s been associated with the school. He started out as a student manager for Bob Knight in the late 1980s and started working for the Varsity Club shortly after graduating.
“I can't imagine doing this without him, honestly,” Dolson said. “I’ve told him this, but he's the comfort food for our fans. He's grilled cheese and tomato soup. He’s always there to pick us up when we need it. I know this is special for him.”
Fischer took over play-by-play duties for Indiana men’s basketball and football in 1973.
While he’s been with the programs for the same amount of time, fans have rarely stopped to talk about football.
Having seen the sellouts at Memorial Stadium — IU has sold out 18 games since 1970 and eight of those have been during Cignetti’s tenure — and an engaged student section, Fischer knows he’s reaching a segment of the fanbase that might not have spent much time listening to his calls.
He takes that responsibility as seriously as when he started out.
“It's been the love of my life being able to do both sports at Indiana for all these years,” Fischer said. “Now, we have a football team taking it to a different level completely, and it’s humbling to be a part of it, and I’m just elated to be quite honest with you.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Don Fischer, Indiana football radio broadcaster, living dream season
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