Fran Fisher

Inducted 1997

Born: September 23, 1923, Salem, Ohio

Fran Fisher began his association with intercollegiate athletics in 1966 when he joined the Penn State Football Radio Network as color announcer.  In 1970 he became the play-by-play voice of the Nittany Lions, a post he held until 1983. 

Fisher called many of Penn State's most exciting victories, including the 1983 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, when the Lions won their first national championship.  He was called back to the radio booth prior to the 1994 football season when he teamed up with George Paterno to once again cover Penn State games.
 
During his sports broadcasting career, Fisher produced and hosted many sports specials for WPSX-TV, including the popular TV Quarterbacks program featuring Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno and former Athletic Director Jim Tarman.  For the past several years he has hosted Nittany Lion Hot Line, a Penn State Sports Network production.  Hot Line is a live radio call-in show featuring Joe Paterno during football season, and Jerry Dunn and Rene Portland during basketball season.

Fisher's commercial radio experience includes WHJB in Greensburg, Pa.  In 1952, he initiated live broadcasts of Greensburg High School football, basketball, and wrestling on WHJB while serving as sports director and commercial manager of the station.  In a Westmoreland county basketball tournament in 1954, he broadcast five basketball games in one day.  He was elected to the Westmoreland County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1978. 

From 1962 through 1968, Fisher covered sports for WKVA in Lewistown, Pa.  He announced all the area high school play-by-play events as well as little league baseball. Fisher ultimately became station manager at WKVA.  During this time, he also moonlighted, doing a variety of sports broadcasting.  He produced and hosted television coverage of PIAA championship events, including wrestling, swimming, track, golf, tennis, and volleyball.  He also covered Penn State athletic events, including wrestling, soccer, lacrosse, and basketball.  These telecasts were produced at WPSX-TV and fed to the Pennsylvania Public Television Network.

Fisher retired from the position of Assistant Athletic Director at Penn State on
December 31, 1988.  He operates a consulting business in State College specializing in advertising, promotion, marketing, and public relations.  He served as the executive director of the Nittany Lion Club, Penn State's athletic support organization, from 1982 to 1988.