Blue White Illustrated

ing hired full-time by Penn State in 1970. Some of his closest friends were Penn Staters in one way or another, oth- ers were not. Of course, some were clos- er than others, but Fran made every one of them feel as close to him as anyone else. No one made friends easier than Fran. I didn't realize this until being around the man so much in the past 20 years. I watched as he talked to fans in the foot- ball tailgate lots, during halftime of bas- ketball games and at special receptions and dinners. People would come up and remind Fran that they had met 20 or 30 years ago at some bowl game or alumni chapter event, and Fran would treat them like a long lost friend, convincing them he knew their names even if he had to prompt them to tell him. If it was someone meeting him for the first time, he would instantly make them feel com- fortable, thanking them for talking with him. It was uncanny but typical of Fran's character. In all the time I was with him, I never heard him say a nasty word about any- one, and four-letter words were not part of his vocabulary. Sure, he would ex- press an opinion or two on the edge, sometimes with one of his sharp wise- cracks but nothing really negative. He lived by a now-forgotten code of his generation: "If you can't say anything nice about a person, don't say any- thing." Fran's amiable persona and subtle wit were part of his God-given nature, but his stature as a Penn State giant evolved over decades. At the time of his death at the age of 91, Fran was as revered by the Penn State football family as John Cap- pelletti. He was the last link between the bygone football era of the early 1930s and the new social media age of coach James Franklin. Right up until a few weeks before his passing, Fran was at- tending spring practice sessions at the Lasch Building practice field. Franklin, like his predecessors Bill O'Brien and Paterno, loved having him there and made sure his players knew who he was and what he meant to the history of the Penn State football program. Fran will be forever known as "the voice of Penn State football" but it was more than an unofficial title, one that L E T T E R F R O M T H E P U B L I S H E R Fran was a passionate advocate for Penn State It was just over 25 years ago that Blue White Illustrated established a business relationship with Fran Fisher and Sons. During that quarter century, it was an honor and a privilege to work with Fran. He and his son Jeff were a key part of the overall framework of BWI during those years, and we'll be proud to con- tinue our relationship with Jeff in the future. But in the years that I knew him, Fran was much more than just a business as- sociate. In many ways, he was a mentor to me. He provided me with tremen- dous insight into what Joe Paterno wanted to establish with Penn State's football program back in the early 1970s when he introduced the idea of the Grand Experiment and "Success with Honor." Then, in the late 1970s, when I ap- proached Penn State with the idea of starting a sports publication entitled Catch Lions Fever, Fran turned out to be one of my biggest supporters in the ath- letic department. On many occasions, I sat down with Fran during the 1980s and early '90s and bounced ideas off him about what he believed would be the best direction for my publication to take. His door was al- ways open to me, and he understood from the first time I talked with him about Catch Lions Fever, the precursor to Blue White Illustrated, that what I wanted to establish was much more than just a publication reporting on the Penn State football program. I think he recognized that we both shared a passion for Penn State sports. Fran treated his job at the university as a labor of love. He sincerely believed that it was the perfect model for how a Divi- sion I athletic program should be oper- ated, and I think he realized that I want- ed to communicate that same passion to readers. My mission was not to become the second coming of The (Harrisburg) Pa- triot-News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Cen- tre Daily Times or Pittsburgh Post- Gazette. We wanted to feature objective reporting, of course, but it had to be coupled with a special understanding of what Penn State athletics, its football program in particular, meant to the PSU community across the country. I will always treasure my association with Fran. Just like Joe Paterno, he was the right man at the right time. Penn State needed someone who could use the airwaves to stir the emotions of fans and alumni, and Fran gave voice to the excitement that was building around the program just as it was taking its place among the national elite. In my mind, there will never be another Fran Fisher, the icon of Penn State football broad- casters. Everyone in the Penn State family will treasure Fran's legacy, and I personally will deeply miss his counsel. |

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