Courtesy the Los Angeles Daily News

(July 23, 2010) Plenty of up-and-coming sports broadcasters will find inspiration in USC's forward-thinking hiring of Chris Fisher as its new basketball radio play-by-play man, the full-time and hopefully long-term replacement for the late Rory Markas.

At 25, Fisher has shown he's plenty able to handle the responsibilities, having learned much of the craft with on-the-job training through opportunities on the USC campus station and website given to him as a recent student.

His polished, steady delivery that usually comes with years of practice will remind you of another former USC broadcaster, Matt Vasgersian, most recently the San Diego Padres' play-by-play man now with the MLB Network, or of Lakers radio voice Spero Dedes — two others who were recognized early for their ability and given shots in the business to succeed at a relatively early age. Dave Flemming, the San Francisco Giants' 34-year-old who's been in their radio booth the past six years, is another example.

"When you see someone succeed like that, it really gives you hope and the thought, 'Why can't I do it?'" Fisher said recently after calling a game in Everett, Wash., for the Single-A Eugene (Ore.) Emeralds of the Northwest League, about to get on a bus for Vancouver, British Columbia, to do the team's next series. "I hope I have the same impact some day on someone else — maybe not just in broadcasting but in finding a career that you're passionate about doing."

The perseverance Fisher has already demonstrated just to get to this point in his career can be categorized as far more awe-inspiring.

He was 17, in his junior year at Cardinal Newman High in Santa Rosa, playing soccer and golf, an avid snow skier. One night, he and two friends were in a car accident the night before a homecoming game — Fisher was in the passenger seat in an Acura Legend. The driver was speeding, couldn't handle a turn, and rolled the car. On top of Fisher.

"No drinking, no drugs, and I had my seat belt on," Fisher said. "You see pictures of the car, and the passenger side just disappeared. I absorbed the force of it. I couldn't move or feel a thing from the neck down."

He had seven hours of surgery that night for a broken neck and a damaged spinal cord at C5-C6, was told he'd never walk again, and spent more than two weeks in the intensive-care unit. He worked daily in the gym for seven months in and out of a wheelchair.

"I had to learn how to live all over again with a brand-new body," said Fisher, who today makes his way with a cane, carries a limp, and has to take medication.

To say it gave him a new perspective on life, and his goal of getting into broadcasting, would be to almost trivialize what happened.

"It did make me grow up fast," Fisher said. "Your priorities really change from, 'Where am I going to go to college?' to 'Will I ever walk again and have kids?'"

"I don't want this accident to define me, but the truth is, it's who I am. I'm still a spinal cord injury patient. I manage. There are certain things I have to keep with me daily because of neurological deficiencies, but in terms of travel and ability to do the job, I'm not really affected. You'd probably never know."

Fisher, a 2007 USC graduate with a political-science degree, said he had a dream long ago to get into sportscasting, which he confirmed by calling USC women's basketball for the school's athletic website, as well as football, baseball and both men's and women's basketball for the student-run KSCR radio outlet. After his graduation, he went to the 2007 baseball winter meetings intent on finding a broadcasting job — and he got one, with the Carolina League's Potomac Nationals.

Fisher had no fall-back plan.

"I was convinced I would land something," he said. "The thought of failure didn't even cross my mind."

During Fisher's senior year, while doing interviews for the USC men's basketball games' pregame show on KSPN-AM 710, the relationship he gained working with Markas became a treasured experience.

"I was a nobody broadcaster, and he gave me the OK to come on and helped me out every chance he could, when it was really his broadcast," Fisher said of Markas, who died in January at age 54. "It wasn't just his listening to my tapes and giving me professional advice. He just conducted himself as good as an example as you'd ever want to find in this business. He stayed positive, he was driven by his passion. He instilled that in me, without a doubt."

Markas could relate to Fisher's desire and ability to do baseball in the spring and summer, as he did with the Angels, and call basketball games in the fall.

For that relationship, Fisher is positive that with the right attitude, he'll be able to pass Markas' spirit on to others as well, and embrace life on a daily basis.

"I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world just by getting this job," Fisher said, "but I'm also extremely fortunate just to be here."

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