15 Facts About Furman Bisher

James Furman Bisher was a newspaper sports writer and columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Atlanta, Georgia.

Furman Bisher wrote his first column for The Atlanta Constitution on April 15,1950, and became well known regionally and nationally during his fifty-nine years as a sports reporter, columnist and editor for the Constitution, its afternoon sister, The Atlanta Journal, and their combined successor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Furman Bisher wrote articles and columns for The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, The Saturday Evening Post, and several other national publications.

Furman Bisher became embroiled in a national controversy in 1962 after he contributed to an article for The Saturday Evening Post which alleged that the University of Georgia's former head football coach and then-current athletic director Wally Butts and coach Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama conspired to fix the outcome of a college football game.

Furman Bisher conducted several interviews for the story that were ultimately not used in the final published version of the article.

Furman Bisher is a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, the University of North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, the International Golf Writers Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, and the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame.

Furman Bisher was chosen the Georgia Sportswriter of the Year on sixteen occasions, and recognized by the Associated Press for the best Georgia story of the year over twenty times.

Furman Bisher received numerous other awards over the years, including the Associated Press Sports Editors' Red Smith Award, and the William D Richardson Award from the Golf Writers Association of America.

Furman Bisher was the president of the Football Writers Association of America from 1959 to 1960, and the president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1974 to 1976.

Furman Bisher co-wrote the first autobiography of Hank Aaron, titled Aaron, RF upon its initial release in 1968.

In 1974, with Aaron about to become the all-time home run king, Furman Bisher added an afterword to include the seasons from 1968 through 1973.

Furman Bisher habitually signed off his columns with the Hebrew word "Selah" from the Book of Psalms.

Furman Bisher estimated that he had written 15,000 daily sports columns, 1,200 magazine articles and more than a dozen books.

Furman Bisher covered every Kentucky Derby since 1950, and every Super Bowl but the first.

Furman Bisher was survived by his second wife Lynda and two of his three sons from his first marriage.