Oklahoma State University Athletics
Fischer's Name Added to Cowgirl Stadium Outfield Wall
February 03, 2018 | Cowgirl Softball
STILLWATER – Legendary Oklahoma State softball coach Sandy Fischer has had her name added to the outfield wall of Cowgirl Stadium, current head coach Kenny Gajewski and the Cowgirls revealed Friday night at an alumni gathering.
"I thought that her name was one that belonged up there first, and as you can see with her emotion and reaction, it was the right thing to do," Gajewski said. "I feel a little bit sad that we hadn't done this before now, but I'm just happy to make sure that we have it done now. Her teams are the reason we have this facility, and the reason we have our World Series appearances and the reason we have everything we've got. She's the one who steered the ship the whole time and there's not a more important person in this program's history."
Fischer is the longest tenured head coach in Cowgirl softball history. During her 23 years at the helm, the nationally-honored coach built OSU into one of college softball's premier programs.
"That's awesome and it's quite an honor," Fischer said of her name being added to the outfield wall. "I appreciate it very much and it's great."
She led the Cowgirls to 17 appearances in either the AIAW or NCAA Division I Regionals, winning nine of them. Fischer also coached OSU to nine appearances in either the AIAW Nationals or NCAA Women's College World Series, finishing as high as fourth in 1998.
Over her final 11 seasons in charge, Sandy Fischer guided the Cowgirls to a .738 winning percentage behind an impressive 496-176 record.
Individually, Fischer coached 16 All-Americans, 60 first-team all-conference players and 49 first-team academic all-conference student-athletes. Players like Michele Smith, Melanie Roche, Kim Ward, Shari Johnson and Jaime Foutch blossomed into All-Americans under of her watchful eye. Smith and Roche both went on to compete in the Olympics on multiple occasions as well.
Fischer also led Oklahoma State to nine conference titles as the program's head coach. Her first two came in 1980 and 1981 and were the first two conference titles in the team's brief history. She followed that achievement by winning seven consecutive league championships from 1989 to 1995.
Fischer is one of only a handful of NCAA coaches to have won at least 900 games. She was named the Big Eight Coach of the Year on four occasions, while also collecting five NFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the NSCA National Coach of the Year in 1988.
After the unveiling ceremony, Fischer also had plenty of praise for the the Cowgirls' current head coach.
"I think he's got the program going again in the right direction," Fischer said of Gajewski. "We had a big lapse for a while and it was hard to watch the tradition kind of fade away for a while, but I honestly feel like he's going to bring it back. We laid a very strong foundation and had a lot of kids play their hearts out with passion.
We didn't have a big stadium or fancy uniforms, but we played with passion and were successful and laid the foundation. For him to recognize that, it's a big deal."
"I thought that her name was one that belonged up there first, and as you can see with her emotion and reaction, it was the right thing to do," Gajewski said. "I feel a little bit sad that we hadn't done this before now, but I'm just happy to make sure that we have it done now. Her teams are the reason we have this facility, and the reason we have our World Series appearances and the reason we have everything we've got. She's the one who steered the ship the whole time and there's not a more important person in this program's history."
Fischer is the longest tenured head coach in Cowgirl softball history. During her 23 years at the helm, the nationally-honored coach built OSU into one of college softball's premier programs.
"That's awesome and it's quite an honor," Fischer said of her name being added to the outfield wall. "I appreciate it very much and it's great."
She led the Cowgirls to 17 appearances in either the AIAW or NCAA Division I Regionals, winning nine of them. Fischer also coached OSU to nine appearances in either the AIAW Nationals or NCAA Women's College World Series, finishing as high as fourth in 1998.
Over her final 11 seasons in charge, Sandy Fischer guided the Cowgirls to a .738 winning percentage behind an impressive 496-176 record.
Individually, Fischer coached 16 All-Americans, 60 first-team all-conference players and 49 first-team academic all-conference student-athletes. Players like Michele Smith, Melanie Roche, Kim Ward, Shari Johnson and Jaime Foutch blossomed into All-Americans under of her watchful eye. Smith and Roche both went on to compete in the Olympics on multiple occasions as well.
Fischer also led Oklahoma State to nine conference titles as the program's head coach. Her first two came in 1980 and 1981 and were the first two conference titles in the team's brief history. She followed that achievement by winning seven consecutive league championships from 1989 to 1995.
Fischer is one of only a handful of NCAA coaches to have won at least 900 games. She was named the Big Eight Coach of the Year on four occasions, while also collecting five NFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the NSCA National Coach of the Year in 1988.
After the unveiling ceremony, Fischer also had plenty of praise for the the Cowgirls' current head coach.
"I think he's got the program going again in the right direction," Fischer said of Gajewski. "We had a big lapse for a while and it was hard to watch the tradition kind of fade away for a while, but I honestly feel like he's going to bring it back. We laid a very strong foundation and had a lot of kids play their hearts out with passion.
We didn't have a big stadium or fancy uniforms, but we played with passion and were successful and laid the foundation. For him to recognize that, it's a big deal."
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