Steve Fisher

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Steve Fisher (born March 24, 1945 in Herrin, Illinois, USA) is a basketball coach currently at San Diego State University.

Steve attended Illinois State University, where he helped led the Redbirds to the 1969 Division II Final Four. After school, he became a high school coach in Park Forest, Illinois. In 1979, he accepted an assistant coaching position at Western Michigan University. In 1982, he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and took another assistant job at the University of Michigan. In 1989, then head coach Bill Frieder abruptly took the coaching job at Arizona State University just before the NCAA tournament, leaving a huge vacancy at Michigan. Despite numerous names coming up in the job search (and despite Frieder's offer to remain as the head coach through the tournament), Wolverines Athletic Director Bo Schembechler insisted that "a Michigan man is going to coach Michigan" in the NCAA tournament, hiring Steve on an interim basis (probably intending to search for more qualified applicants after the season ended).

However, Fisher the " interim" would end up leading the Wolverines to an improbable NCAA championship that season, thanks to a strong performance by guard Glen Rice. Immediately, boosters clamored for Steve to be hired as the permanent men's coach, so after the season, he was installed as head coach.

In 1990, Steve recruited one of the most talented incoming freshman classes of the decade . High school all-stars Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, and Juwan Howard all signed with Fisher and Michigan, forming what became known as the "Fab Five". Together, they helped lead the Wolverines to a national title game berth as freshmen, only to lose to Duke. As sophomores, they again reached the title game, this time losing to North Carolina when Webber was called for a technical foul after, with 11 seconds remaining in the game, he signaled for a timeout that Michigan did not have.

After the title-game loss to the Tar Heels, Webber went pro; Rose and Howard followed a year later, and Howard was the only member of the Fab Five to earn a diploma from Michigan. The Wolverines never reached the same heights again, and in October 1997 Fisher was fired as Michigan's head coach, in the wake of the first of three NCAA investigations involving Michigan booster Ed Martin's cash gifts to current and former Wolverine players.

In 1999, Steve took over as coach of a terrible San Diego State program that had suffered losing records in 13 of the previous 14 years. In the season before Fisher arrived the Aztecs had won just four games, but within two seasons Steve had brought the team up to a .500 record, and led them to a 21-12 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance in year three of his regime.

In the midst of Fisher's impressive work at San Diego State, though, more facts surfaced surrounding his stint with the Wolverines that further damaged his reputation. In 2002, an indictment unsealed in a Detroit federal court charged former Michigan booster Ed Martin with running an illegal gambling operation and money laundering. Additionally, it claimed that Martin gave Webber $280,000 in illicit loans while Webber was in high school and college, with another $336,000 allegedly going to three other former Wolverine players (though they were not part of the Fab Five).

As a result of the revelations, the University of Michigan decided to forfeit all of the victories earned with former Fisher-signed (and Martin-paid) players Webber, Robert Traylor, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock in the lineup (including 1992 Final Four games versus Cincinnati and Duke, plus the entire '92-93, '95-96, '96-97, '97-98 and '98-99 seasons). Additionally, the school issued a self-imposed postseason probation for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, and removed the banners hanging in Crisler Arena that commemorate the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours, along with all official records of the Wolverines' participation in those tournaments.

While the discoveries have not impacted Fisher's career with San Diego State (and no new allegations have occurred in conjunction with that program), they have put him (perhaps unfairly) in the category of "unethical coaches," a group which includes former Fresno State and UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, and former University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins.

Preceded by: Bill Frieder

Michigan Men's Head Basketball Coach 1989–1997

Succeeded by: Brian Ellerbe

Michigan Wolverines Head Basketball Coaches
Corneal • Mitchell • Mather • Veenker • Cappon • Oosterbaan • Cowles • McCoy • Perigo • Strack • Orr • Frieder • Fisher • Ellerbe • Amaker