Mike McCombs is the sports editor at the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. He is on his second tour of duty in the Lowcountry. | Furman Bisher died Sunday. For those that don't know who he was, he wrote for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution for more than 50 years and he was one of the greatest to ever write a sports story.
I grew up near Atlanta and can remember reading Bisher when I was as young as 7 or 8. I read the sports section religiously. Before they combined, we got the Journal in the afternoons and the morning Journal-Constitution on the weekends.
As I got home from school during the week, I would have the first crack at the paper before my father got home from work. I hated folding the pages back, so I would spread it out on the kitchen floor and read every word. Those included Bisher's words.
He was already a veteran of almost three decades in the business when I first happened upon him. When he told stories, you knew he had been there. Reading him when he wrote about sports figures from bygone eras was like hearing an old Marine talk about island hopping in the Pacific. You knew he was genuine.
And he had the ability to keep his writing simple and be eloquent at the same time. Only the best.
I didn't know him. I never met him. I've been in this business for 15 years and I don't believe we were ever at the same sporting event, save possibly a couple of Clemson-Georgia or Clemson-Georgia Tech football games I would have attended as a fan before I was out of school.
But there are a lot of sports journalists out there who worked with Bisher. And they've written a lot of really nice stories and columns the past three days.
So I thought I'd gather some links to some of the best stuff from some people who were fortunate enough to know Bisher as more than a byline or a column sig.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogger Jeff Schultz wrote about losing his friend: http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2012/03/19/furman-bisher-we-lost-...
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley wrote about his 1984 car ride from Atlanta to Clemson with Bisher: http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2012/03/19/driving-mr-bisher-a-ca...
ESPN.com's Ed Hinton, who is nearing four decades in the business and is one of the most prominent motorsports writers in the country, wrote that Bisher proved it was OK to treat auto racing with respect: http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/7709954/nascar-furman-bi...
New York Times golf blogger Lynn Zinser on the loss of a legend: http://onpar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/bisher-the-loss-of-a-legend/
Yahoo.com baseball blogger Kevin Kaduk wrote that Bisher's exclusive Shoeless Joe Jackson interview was the highlight of his career: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/furman-bisher-shoeless...
Darrell Huckaby of the Rockdale (Ga.) Citizen wrote "Every writer has the same supply of words at his or her disposal but Furman Bisher could arrange them like none other.": http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/2012/mar/20/darrell-huckaby-furman-b...
Retired Charlotte News and Observer columnist Ron Green wrote that Bisher kept us all digging: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/19/3111612/furman-bisher-kept-u...
The Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux worte that Bisher was never anything but kind to him: http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/scott-michaux/2012-03-19/sportswriti...
PGATour.com's Stan Awtrey, formerly of the AJC, writes about Bisher's love of golf and Awtry's favorite voicemail: http://www.pgatour.com/2012/r/03/19/awtrey-bisher/
SBNation's Jason Kirk wrote about Bisher and his feud with Bear Bryant: http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2012/3/19/2884251/furman-bisher-be...
My friend Todd Shanesy of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal wrote: http://campuscommuter.blogs.goupstate.com/15653/morning-brew-sports-writ...