In 53 years calling IU football on the radio, Don Fischer had never seen a night like this.
If you’ve been listening to Fischer’s radio call of the Hoosiers for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed a new level of joy conveying elite football to the fan base over the last two seasons.
On Saturday night high above the Lucas Oil Stadium field as the radio team waited to see if they’d get head coach Curt Cignetti for a postgame interview, Fischer was asked how it sounded to call Indiana the Big Ten champs?
“That’s about as good a sound as there can possibly be in the world today,” Fischer said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
In his first 51 seasons calling Indiana games beginning with the 1973 season, the first year of Lee Corso’s time as head coach in Bloomington, Fischer had only called 11 seasons where the Hoosiers finished the year with a winning record. He had never called a Big Ten Championship Game. Only three times in those first 51 years had IU finished better than fourth in the league, and only three times had they won a bowl game in that span.
But everything changed when IU hired Cignetti ahead of the 2024 season.
The Hoosiers are now 24-2 over the last two years, with two College Football Playoff appearances, two top-2 finishes in the league, and now a Big Ten Championship.
Cignetti does a brief postgame interview with Fischer after every Indiana contest.
But Saturday night was different.
There was the on-field celebration and trophy presentation, and multiple on-field interviews Cignetti had to attend to. The radio crew wondered aloud whether they’d get the coach on the air amid all of the chaos.
It would be nearly an hour after the final seconds ticked off the game clock before Cignetti could put on the radio headset and have a quick chat with Fischer.
Fischer told Cignetti he was glad he was able to join the broadcast to let people around the state hear from him for a couple minutes after such a monumental win.
Cignetti, recognizing what the moment meant to Fischer, turned that remark back to the radio legend.
“Well, Don I’m glad you decided to stick around so you could see this, because you are a legend in this state,” Cignetti told Fischer.
Humble as ever, Fischer replied being a legend just means he’s old, to which Cignetti said he could relate as he took off the headset and went on to his next interview.
But this was an unforgettable evening in Indianapolis, when everyone who has suffered through the seemingly never-ending lows of Indiana football felt young again.
“This has been a special night for every Hoosier fan,” Fischer said as he signed off the air.
Indeed it was.
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