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In a phone conversation Wednesday afternoon, Robert Lichtenwalter remembered a football game at Peru in 1941.
Lichtenwalter, then a freshman quarterback for the Warsaw Tigers, remembered running to the sideline with one tooth and part of another in his hand.
"I ran to the sideline with those teeth in my hand," Lichtenwalter said. "I expected some sympathy, he told me to get back in there. That's just the way he was. When we got back in town I saw a dentist."
The "he" Lichtenwalter is referring to is the late George Fisher, who coached at Warsaw High School from 1926-1951. Fisher is the all-time winningest football coach at Warsaw with 103 wins.
Fisher also coached boys basketball and track and field.
As a basketball coach, Fisher tallied 197 wins, second in the Warsaw record book only to Al Rhodes. As a track and field coach, a Fisher-coached athlete qualified for the state meet each year he coached.
"He was quite a guy," Lichtenwalter, a 1945 Warsaw High School graduate, said of Fisher. "If you weren't doing things the right way he'd show you how to do it. He would also set you on your hind end right away."
Lichtenwalter described Fisher as a tough guy who had a caring heart.
For what he meant to the Tiger football program, the Warsaw High School football field - which was located where Central Park is now - was officially named Fisher Field Sept. 20, 1952. In a come-from-behind win, Warsaw beat New Haven 7-6 that night.
The name Fisher Field was then transferred to the field behind the new high school, which is now Lakeview Middle School.
Friday night, when the Tigers host Homestead in the first home game of the season, the football field at Warsaw Community High School will officially be named Fisher Field.
"I'm a Warsaw Tiger fan," said Lichtenwalter, who served as a coach in the Warsaw football program from 1947-1988. "I can't a imagine a kid playing football in Warsaw and not playing on Fisher Field."
According to WCHS Athletic Director Dave Fulkerson, a plaque honoring Fisher will be located above the ticket booth at the main entrance to the Tiger Athletic Complex. There also will be a sign - orange with white letters, Fulkerson said - on the back of the pressbox.
"It's very overpowering the type of person he was," Fulkerson said of Fisher. "I've read and heard a lot about him. Everybody has said good things about him."
Terry Klondaris, who played on the Warsaw High School football team in 1940, 1941 and the undefeated team of 1942, said that Fisher was a big influence on his life.
"He was a taskmaster but he was fair," said Klondaris, who played end on both offense and defense. "He taught you how to play the game and he taught you how to win and take it graciously. If you got beat, there was always the next game. If you got knocked down, you got up and did it again. He influenced a lot of people. I'm glad I had the opportunity to play for him."
Klondaris said he lettered in all three sports that Fisher coached.
