One of the influential people in Canadian skiing, Al Fisher represents UBC’s contribution to a skiing legacy. From 1956 through 1969, Fisher was the volunteer coach of UBC’s most successful ski teams, training and coaching men and women to Olympic levels, passing on his passion for fitness training while laying the path for some of Canada’s glory days at the international skiing level.
Allan Fisher was the volunteer coach of the UBC ski team for 13 years from 1956 through 1969. He brought remarkable abilities to this commitment and to this investment in UBC. Attending high school in Rossland, BC, he had an outstanding record as a four-way skier, racing successfully in slalom, downhill, cross-country and jumping. Consequently, he won a skiing scholarship to Washington State University. In four years of competition at Washington State he lettered four times in both skiing and track, winning the NCAA cross country skiing championship once and twice winning the Pacific Coast Conference championship in the two mile track event. He was in fact the Canadian record holder in the three-mile track event for four years, 1952-56 and very nearly made the 1952 Canadian Olympic team in the 5000 meter running event. After graduating as an engineer he came to Vancouver, BC where he spent his professional career as an engineer at H.A. Simons, concentrating on pulp mill construction.
As a young man with a wife and eventually four children, he undertook on a volunteer basis the coaching of the UBC ski team. The coach trained with the team from October through March in two-hour sessions three times a week. During these sessions there were approximately twenty or more participants of the Men's ski team. In addition the Women's team was welcome as were several local skiers many of whom were named to F.I.S. and Olympic teams. They began with a run of three miles to the gates of the University at Blanca or down the hill to the beach and back. A regimen of running the stairs in the gym, deep knee bends, sitting on infinity and callisthenics followed. UBC's ski team believed it was more fit than any of the other university teams. In fact, it was coach Fisher who became the driving force of the training regimen of Canada's National Team. In the late '50s and early '60s UBC was where this team's training was centred and "training didn't start until Al Fisher arrived."
Within the skiing community, Al Fisher's training program was legendary. Nancy Greene-Raine whose older sister Elizabeth skied for Fisher at UBC, is a big Al Fisher booster. Nancy, who won Olympic Gold and Silver in 1968, remembers "It was Al Fisher who got us training in May each year - there was no such thing as an off-season for ski racers from Red Mountain. No wonder we always had someone on the National Ski Team." In referring to herself along with three other Rossland skiers making the 1960 Olympic team, "If Al had not taught us how to get in shape, it might not have happened!" John Platt, who skied for Fisher at UBC and who later became head of Canada's 1968 National Ski Team states, "AI Fisher's early season dry land training, superb fitness and attention to race detail had a big effect on me as a coach. Many of his innovative ideas were incorporated into the training of the National Team." Greene-Raine acknowledges that the methods of her coach John Platt flowed directly from Fisher's leadership. Fisher's legacy through Platt was the development of the training methods used by the National Team at Notre Dame University at Nelson, BC during the late 1960's.
UBC's competitive ski meets involved teams from Alberta (U of A, Calgary), as well as Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. Each year there were usually from seven to eleven teams and approximately five meets with the Northwest Intercollegiate Skiing Championship held at the end of the season. Winning competitors or teams from the US might then advance to the NCAA championships, but UBC skiers and teams could not.
The coach accompanied the team to these meets, which of course involved considerable travel and being away from his family for weekends. A number of the opposing teams did not have a coach as a sponsor or mentor, nor did they have someone to teach team technique. UBC was one of the teams fortunate enough to have as coach an excellent skier in all the disciplines as well as an intense and smart competitor. However, for many of these years the UBC team suffered a great disadvantage insofar as American schools could offer scholarships not only to excellent alpine skiers from Rossland- Trail, but also regularly to some of the best Olympic level Norwegian cross country skiers and jumpers. Hard training and technique under Fisher helped make up some of this disadvantage.
The UBC team obtained most of its points in the downhill and slalom and often during these years was considered to be in the top three in western North America. Between 1957 and 1968, UBC's team won or came second in 11 of 27 recorded meets. Over these years John Platt finished first in eight races, Roar Gjessing and Don Bruneski each won three. Platt finished in the top three 12 times, Gjessing and Bruneski finished in the top three 6 times each.
During the 13 seasons Al Fisher coached the ski team, a number of UBC skiers were notably successful in racing. Some, such as John Platt, Don Bruneski and Elizabeth Greene made the National Team, skied in the Olympics or on the European and World circuit. Their racing for UBC made the name of the university familiar in a number of places and to people who would otherwise probably not have known of it. Their experience of racing on this team was an important and memorable part of their education. Future F.I.S. director, Dr. Peter Andrews of Vancouver, made his mark in the administrative aspect of skiing largely due to the influence of his UBC coach, Al Fisher.
Women were certainly not excluded from Al Fisher's skiing program. "Because of his attitude, women felt included as part of the men's group" states former UBC skier Inge Andreen. "He was the only stable contact we had. He provided us direction for fitness and land training."
During the 1970s, following his UBC coaching career, Al Fisher coached a youth track team which used UBC's War Memorial Gym during the winter months. Here he also found time to teach many of these youngsters cross-country skiing. Some of these young and already well-trained runners eventually entered and competed for UBC. He also is considered a major contributor to the development and creation of Whistler Mountain as a ski resort. He created the idea of the initial Olympic games bid in 1968 and played a prominent role in the '76 bid, all resulting in the infrastructure and subsequent facilities we see in the Whistler area today. He is also credited with being responsible for the creation of the Canadian Skiing Coaches Association. According to Greene-Raine, "The great thing about Al Fisher is that he has influenced so many people in so many different sports. He has always been someone who gave unselfishly, not seeking glory, giving because of his passion for sport and fitness."
Many of the members of his team at UBC have stayed in touch with him and all have remained his admiring friends. It might also be said that they suffer his enduring influence: he has always taught that the task and obligation of keeping fit did not end with the ski team nor any other athletic project. Training is forever and should always be fun, the training and competition generating a huge fund of amusing stories and lasting camaraderie. The objective of more than a few of his pupils or associates in sport is still to best him, just once, on cross-country skis or during a grueling week-long bicycle tour in the interior of BC. Most will only dream of such a triumph.
Fisher's contribution as a volunteer coach at UBC and his influence on the young men and women who trained and raced under him has endured. "He was the program - the team was never as well put together as it was in his era...yet he was one of those behind the scenes people who never asked for the public eye," states former team member Peter Miller…"what Frank Read was doing for UBC rowing in terms of fitness, Fisher was doing for skiing." According to Inge Andreen, "we would not have had skiing at UBC without Al Fisher. He was the glue that kept everything together. He was highly respected because he made it happen." Admirer Peter Miller further states, ... " He was an outstanding, unselfish coach and a shaper of lives and aspirations. He laid the path for some of Canada's glory days at the International skiing level. If anyone personifies the UBC motto "Tuum est" - its up to you - its Al Fisher."
Researched and written by Ted Hill, Peter Miller and Fred Hume, UBC Athletics Historian
