NORMAL, Ill. -- Illinois State Athletics will officially dedicate the softball field inside Marian Kneer Stadium as Melinda Fischer Field on April 11, honoring the Hall of Fame career of former Redbird head coach Melinda Fischer.
The dedication ceremony is scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. CT, prior to Illinois State's doubleheader against Indiana State, which is set for a 2 p.m. CT first pitch.
Fischer, who has more wins than any coach in ISU history, retired in 2022 as one of only 28 head coaches in NCAA Division I softball that have won 1,000 games in their coaching career with at least 10 years of Division I head coaching experience.
Fischer spent 37 seasons at the helm of Redbird Softball, accumulating 1,118 victories at ISU alone to become the winningest coach in Illinois State Athletics and Missouri Valley Conference history. Fischer announced her retirement in August of 2022 and will exit the head coaching world as the 18th-winningest head coach in NCAA Division I Softball history with 1,159 career wins.
She graduated from Illinois State in 1972 after playing softball, basketball and field hockey for the Redbirds. Her 1969 Redbird Softball team was the national runner up in the first ever Women's College World Series. Fischer is a two-time inductee into the ISU Athletics Percy Family Hall of Fame, and her legacy and impact will forever be felt by every student-athlete, staff member and fan of ISU Athletics and the sport of softball.
