Furman Bisher
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Furman Bisher (born November 4, 1918) is a retired sports columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he once served as sports editor, and a columnist for The Sporting News. Bisher wrote for Sports Illustrated, The Saturday Evening Post, and many other national publications. His final column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was published online on Saturday, October 10, 2009, with the print version appearing in the October 11, 2009 Sunday paper.[1]
Bisher was born in Denton, North Carolina, and was a 1938 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He became editor of the Lumberton Voice at the age of 20. He went on to work at the High Point Enterprise and the Charlotte News, where he became the sports editor in 1948.
In 1949, Bisher landed the only interview ever granted by Shoeless Joe Jackson concerning his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Bisher was president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1974 to 1976 and president of the Football Writers Association of America from 1959 to 1960.
In 1961, Time magazine named him one of the nation's five best columnists.
Bisher co-wrote the first autobiography of Henry Aaron, titled Aaron, RF upon its initial release in 1968. In 1974, with Aaron about to become the all-time home run king, Bisher added an afterword to include the years from 1968 to 1973. The new edition was titled Aaron, as the subject was no longer a right fielder.
Bisher, at the age of 90, held seniority over the hundreds of golf reporters and other sports journalists who descend on Augusta, Georgia, each April for The Masters Tournament. During the 2006 tournament, The Golf Channel profiled Bisher as the "dean" of Masters journalists. Bisher has also covered every Kentucky Derby since 1950, and every Super Bowl but the first.[2]
Bisher famously signs off his columns with the word, "Selah."
[edit] Bibliography
- With a Southern Exposure, (with an introduction written by Bing Crosby) (1962).
- Strange But True Baseball Stories, Random House, New York, New York (1966).
- Miracle in Atlanta: the Atlanta Braves Story, World Publishing Co. (1966).
- Hank Aaron, Crowell, New York (1968).
- The Birth of A Legend Arnold Palmer's Golden Year 1960, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1972).
- The Masters: Augusta Revisited-An Intimate View, Oxmoor House, Birmingham, Alabama (1976).
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Furman Bisher, "Transcontinental memories of 'so many fun' mark the end," Atlanta Journal-Constitution (October 10, 2009). Retrieved October 12, 2009.
- ^ Krista Reese, "Furman Bisher (b. 1918)," The New Georgia Encyclopedia, The University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia (2006). Retrieved October 12, 2009.
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