Milton (Mickey) Fishman followed all of the Detroit sports teams, especially the Tigers, but it was his love of the teams at his alma mater — University of Michigan — that really captured his attention.

Mr. Fishman excelled in baseball and swimming at Northern High School in Detroit and later became a top pitcher for the U-M baseball team, leading the team to a Big Ten Championship in 1942.

“He was a great baseball player,” said Detroit attorney Steve Fishman, Mr. Fishman’s nephew. “He grew up in an athletic family and was the youngest of four boys who played sports.”

Mr. Fishman died Friday after a brief illness. He was 92.

Born in Detroit on Jan. 28, 1920, Mr. Fishman was a child of Russian immigrant parents who instilled a love of sports and country in their children.

After graduating from Northern High School in 1937, Mr. Fishman attended U-M, where his older brothers Ben, Manny and Herman also went and excelled in sports.

The brothers are the only four in the history of the university to all earn varsity letters, Steve Fishman said.

After college, Mr. Fishman enlisted in the Navy, where he was commissioned as an ensign.

Mr. Fishman was sent overseas, where his ship was involved in seven invasions during World War II, including the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa, Steve Fishman said.

After returning to Detroit, Mr. Fishman married Bertha (Boots) Schneider. The couple had four daughters.

After his return from the war, Mr. Fishman and his brothers built a summer sports camp in northern Michigan. Camp Michigama, which operated for more than 20 years, was in West Branch and taught hundreds of Jewish Detroit-area youths the value of sportsmanship and discipline.

“The kids would wake up in the morning and salute the flag and go to bed with Taps,” Steve Fishman said.

Mr. Fishman was also in the scrap business, and in his last years he was a steel broker.

His love of sports prompted Mr. Fishman to be one of the founders of the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Mr. Fishman was inducted in 1998 for his collegiate baseball career.

“Most of my happiest memories of him are playing baseball, tennis and in later years golf,” Steve Fishman said. “He lived a great, extraordinary life.”

His wife died in 1971. The couple’s daughter Cindy died in 1998.

Mr. Fishman is survived by daughters Nancy, Marcia and Bonnie; six grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. at the Ira Kaufman Chapel, 18325 W. Nine Mile, Southfield. Burial will be at the Clover Hill Park Cemetery, 2425 E. Fourteen Mile, Birmingham.

Contributions in memory of Mr. Fishman may be made to the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation, 2000 Oakley Park Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

via Free Press Milton (Mickey) Fishman: Former star athlete remained dedicated to sports | Obituaries | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.