COLUMBIANA – The Columbiana Clippers will be honoring the very first Clipper.

Dick “Sonny” Fisher – whose nickname also became Columbiana High School’s – died March 6 in Fort Myers, Fla., at the age of 95.

Columbiana High School is holding a special ceremony to honor him in which his son, Ric Fisher, will be presenting his Ohio State Varsity “O” Hall of Fame plaque at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 7.

After an outstanding career at Columbiana High School, Dick Fisher went on to star at Ohio State University from 1939-41 and returned in 1945 after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

He was a halfback in football, named to the Associated Press All-Big Ten second team in 1941, the first under coach Paul Brown. He also was a guard on the Buckeye basketball team, leading the team in scoring and the Big Ten in free throws made in the 1941-42 season.

“The sports announcer radio announcer from Cleveland (Tom Manning) who did the Ohio State games, when Dick would make a good run, he would say, ‘There goes the Columbiana Clipper.’ So from there it got picked up,” said Rich Berryman, a 1947 Columbiana graduate. “We didn’t have a nickname until then that I know of.”

Fisher went on to be the running backs coach at Ohio State from 1947-50, coaching 1950 Heisman Trophy winner Vic Janowicz.

“When we went down to the state tournament in 1947, he was on the coaching staff at Ohio State football,” said Berryman, the captain of Columbiana’s state championship basketball team that year. “He sat very close to the bench and we were very excited about having an Ohio State football coach on the bench.”

When Ohio State head coach Wes Fesler left after the 1950 season and went to Minnesota, Fisher went with him as running backs coach, where he stayed through the 1953 season.

Fisher left coaching and became a sales representative for Inland Steel for 30 years, before retiring and moving to Fort Myers, Florida.

“I was fortunate to meet him a couple of times and was very impressed with him,” Columbiana football coach Bob Spaite said. “It speaks a lot about him that a lot of his stuff is coming back to Columbiana. He was very proud of our school and always wanted to pass that along to the community.”

Berryman said he last saw Fisher 10 years during a trip to Florida.

” A fine fellow,” Berryman said. “He’s probably the greatest athlete Columbiana has ever had.”

Fisher was a four-year letterwinner in football, basketball and track at Columbiana High School.

The multi-talented Fisher was a state champion in track, leading Columbiana to the 1938 state team title. He ran on the 1937 state championship 880-yard relay team that set a state-meet record (1:31.7) that stood for 37 years. He followed that up by winning a state title in the shot put (45-feet-5 1/2) the next year.

Fisher led the Tri-County League in scoring during his sophomore, junior, and senior years in both football and basketball and broke the school record for most points in a career in basketball as a junior.

After his career at Ohio State, the Columbiana Clipper nickname took off.

“At that time there was a huge seaplane called the Clipper, so that was the insignia we used,” Berryman said.

The story of Fisher as the Columbiana Clipper has been on display at the high school for years.

“They have a very nice display at the high school,” Berryman said.