Don Fischer’s 50-year wait ends as Indiana football wins national title

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Don Fischer never saw this coming.

The play-by-play voice of Indiana basketball and football was behind the microphone a half-century ago when the Hoosiers — the basketball Hoosiers, coached by Bob Knight — won the 1976 national title with a perfect 32-0 record.

And Monday, he described for listeners how the Hoosiers’ football team matched that feat of becoming an undefeated national champion. Indiana beat Miami 27-21 at Hard Rock Stadium for the College Football Playoff national championship, with the Hoosiers becoming the first 16-0 team in major college football since Yale in 1894.

“From my perspective as a broadcaster, that’s the ultimate — to be a part of something, a national champion,” Fischer said in the Hoosiers’ radio booth a couple of hours before kickoff Monday. “And now I’ve got a chance to do the same thing in football. I mean, it’s a special night for me.”

It got more special a few hours later, when Fischer got to make the call he’s waited 50 years to say.

“The rags to riches story for Indiana football comes to conclusion and they are the national champions of 2026,” Fischer said after Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza hit the ground for the final play. “What a football team! What a football team! And this...