In 1964, Fichtner became an assistant basketball coach for Occidental College. He was named head coach at Occidental in 1970. He led the Tigers for three seasons, compiling a 47–31 record.[2] He left Occidental to become an assistant coach at Division IPacific under head coach Stan Morrison in 1973, and in 1979 became head coach when Morrison left to take the coaching job at USC. He resigned from Pacific after compiling a 36–49 record over three seasons.