Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

1948 Outland Trophy Winner Bill Fischer Dies

Feb. 1, 2017

Bill “Moose” Fischer, a two-time consensus All-America football player at the University of Notre Dame and winner of the 1948 Outland Trophy as the top collegiate interior lineman in the country, died Jan. 20 in Cape Coral, Florida. He was 89.

A consensus All-America pick in 1947 and 1948, Fisher earned first-team All-America recognition as a junior in ’47 on teams named by the Associated Press, United Press, Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), The Sporting News and Look. As a senior in ‘48 he added first-team notice from United Press, NEA, International News Service, the All-America Board and The Sporting News.

Captain of the ’48 Irish national championship team, he was a three-year starter at left guard in 1946-47-48. The Chicago, Illinois, product (Lane Tech High School) won the Outland Trophy in 1948 as the top lineman in the country and helped the Irish to unbeaten seasons in 1946, ’47 and ’48 (26-0-2 combined over those three seasons). He tied for the team lead in minutes played in 1947 with 300.

Fischer played in the East-West Shrine Game following his final campaign at Notre Dame, captaining the East team. He was named MVP for his squad in the 1949 College All-Star Game.

A first-round pick (10th overall selection) by the Chicago Cardinals in the 1949 NFL Draft, he played professionally with Chicago from 1949-53 and then served as a Notre Dame assistant football coach from 1954-58 under Irish head coach Terry Brennan.

An NFL All-Pro player in 1951 and 1952, Fischer served as president of the Notre Dame Monogram Club in 1982.

Owner for many years of an automobile dealership in Ishpeming, Michigan, he’s a 1983 inductee into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.

He was born March 10, 1927 in Chicago.