Pat Fischer, the former Husker who became an All Pro defensive back and a pioneer of the bump-and-run technique, has died at age 84.
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Pat Fischer, a feisty and fearsome if diminutive defensive back who played 17 seasons in the National Football League, including the final 10 with the former Washington Redskins, died Oct. 8 in Ashburn, Va., after suffering from dementia. He was 84.
Known to his teammates as “Mouse,” Mr. Fischer was listed on the team’s roster as 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, yet anyone who ever saw him in person knew even those measurements were somewhat exaggerated.
His playing style was not.
As a cornerback responsible for covering many of the game’s finest receivers and tackling some of its most physical runners, Mr. Fischer was fearless. Early in his pro career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Colts Hall of Fame quarterback John Unitas was asked what he thought of “the kid playing corner.”
“That kid is Pat Fischer,” Unitas replied, “and if he hits you, he’ll knock your socks off!”
For most of his 17 seasons in the NFL, and before that at the University of Nebraska, Mr. Fischer was constantly facing opponents bigger, faster and stronger. It never seemed to matter much, including his classic duels with Philadelphia Eagles receiver Harold Carmichael, at 6-7 then the tallest wideout in the league in the mid-1970s. Mr. Fischer took great pride in mostly neutralizing Carmichael, even as Eagles quarterbacks were told by their coaches to “fire high” whenever the two were matched up.
Mr. Fischer also is believed to be one of the earliest defensive backs to employ the “bump and run” technique. He would initiate contact at the line of scrimmage, throwing a wide receiver off balance and disrupting his path toward his normal pass route.
“Fischer was in at the birth of the bump-and-run,” Washington Post sports columnist William Barry Furlong wrote in 1974. “Normally, it’s credited to Kent McCloughan and Willie Brown, Oakland Raider cornerbacks in the mid-to-late 1960s. Fischer is not inclined to get into a historical dispute, but he is inclined to credit the maneuver to Abe Woodson, a teammate of his on the St. Louis Cardinals.”
“History keeps trying to do Fischer out of another distinction,” wrote the late Dave Brady, The Post’s longtime NFL reporter, in 1976. “The recent issue of ‘Pro,’ the official publication of the NFL, credits former cornerback Kent McCloughan with originating the practice of bump-and-run pass defense. Fischer was knocking receivers off-stride for St. Louis years before McCloughan passed up playing with the Redskins to sign with the Oakland Raiders.”
Said Mr. Fischer in 2015, “I had just come into the league [in 1961]. And then our defensive backs coach [in St. Louis], Chuck Drulis, said that’s what he wanted us to do. I had a terrible time adjusting to it. When I finally figured out how to do it, it worked out pretty well.”
Mr. Fischer’s tackling technique also worked out. He rarely hesitated to go after the powerful running backs of his era, including 230-pound Jim Brown, 225-pound Larry Csonka and 215-pound Paul Hornung.
He once described his technique for stopping those behemoth backs to NFL Films: “Stay low, keep my head up and when I make contact, lift and take one of his legs away from him. If I get him off the ground with one leg, I’m going to win the war, because now he doesn’t have any power. He has to have both legs driving in order for him to run over me.”
Mr. Fischer also will be remembered for his role in one of the most controversial plays in the history of the Washington franchise. Late in the 1975 season, Washington needed a victory over the Cardinals to take over first place in the division. With less than two minutes remaining and Washington ahead, St. Louis quarterback aimed a fourth-down pass at fleet receiver Mel Gray in the end zone.
As the ball hit Gray’s hands, Mr. Fischer delivered a heavy blow that knocked the ball loose, seemingly for an incomplete pass. But game officials saw it differently and, after a five-minute discussion, awarded the Cardinals the touchdown that tied the score. Washington eventually lost by a field goal in overtime, and its season unraveled thereafter. The team missed the playoffs and finished third in the division on what came to be known as “The Phantom Catch.”
Mr. Fischer was born on Jan. 2, 1940, in St. Edward, Neb., one of nine children, including five boys. He played football and was a three-sport letterman at Omaha Westside High School, where he was named to Nebraska’s all-state team.
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Pat played safety, tailback and quarterback at Nebraska, roughly a two-hour drive from where he grew up in St. Edward closer to the center of the state. A 17th-round pick of the Cardinals out of college (232nd overall), Fischer is one of the players in Washington's ring of fame.
