Raymond Lyle (Ray) Fisher

Ray Lyle Fisher

University of Michigan Baseball Coach (1921 – 1958)

Ray Fisher was born in Middlebury, Vermont and was an all-around athlete in high school playing baseball, football and basketball as well as running track. He helped the football team win a state championship in 1904 and was recruited by college to play football but chose to attend Middlebury College to play baseball. After a successful college baseball career, he signed on with the New York Highlanders/Yankees and then on to the Cincinnati Reds. Overall, he played ten years in Major League Baseball winning 100 games before accepting the position of head baseball coach at the University of Michigan where he stayed for 38 years. His overall record was 637 – 294 – 8 with fourteen Big Ten titles and one NCAA College World Series championship. Fisher’s impact as a coach is far reaching as nineteen of his players signed with a major league team. Ray Fisher was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1979, the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1966 and was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1959. He passed away on November 3, 1982 at 95 years of age.