Background
Furman Bisher was born on November 4, 1918, in Denton, North Carolina, United States to Chisholm Bisher, a textile manufacturer, and Mamie (Morris) Bisher.
Furman initially attended Furman University.
Furman graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Furman Bisher with Joe Jackson 1949
Stan Awtrey (left) and Furman Bisher at Georgia Golf Hall of Fame meeting
(As a veteran sportswriter, Furman Bisher has been Face to...)
As a veteran sportswriter, Furman Bisher has been Face to Face with the most influential sports figures the country has to offer. He pulls no punches and leaves no question un-asked in this collection of his all-time best interviews. From baseball to boxing and from Jack Nicklaus to Red Grange, Furman Bisher shares his biggest scoops and most heart-warming stories. Shoeless Joe Jackson, in 1949, agreed to allow Bisher to help him present his side of the "Black Sox Scandal," something that had never been done before. Bisher shadowed the Petty racing family at their compound in Level Cross, North Carolina, and discovered the secret behind their success: family. He broke a story about brutality in college football, which led to a nation-wide scandal involving a shady conversation between Bryant and Georgia athletic director Wallace Butts about Georgia's game plan; read Bisher's explanation of this case of mistaken identity. In Face to Face, Bisher provides insight into the private lives of sporting men from all generations, sports, shapes, sizes and dispositions - golfer Arnold Palmer, Marlins manager Jack McKeon, boxer Muhammad Ali, UCLA coach John Wooden, media mogul Ted Turner, and more - open their hearts and their homes to legendary journalist Furman Bisher and to you.
https://www.amazon.com/Furman-Bisher-Face/dp/1582618151/?tag=2022091-20
Furman Bisher was born on November 4, 1918, in Denton, North Carolina, United States to Chisholm Bisher, a textile manufacturer, and Mamie (Morris) Bisher.
Furman initially attended Furman University. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Furman began his career at the Lumberton Voice in North Carolina in 1938.
Bisher became an editor in 1940 for the Charlotte News, where he worked for the rest of the decade, excepting four years of military service during World War II. In 1950 he left the Charlotte News to become sports editor for the Atlanta Constitution. In 1957 he joined the Atlanta Journal and the Sunday Journal-Constitution as sports editor and columnist, and he continued to write for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also became a columnist for the Sporting News.
After his retirement in 2009, Bisher occasionally wrote columns for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and he continued to cover the Masters Tournament. In early 2010 he began writing as a guest columnist for Southern Community Newspapers, the parent company of seven local newspapers in Georgia.
Over the years Bisher scored a number of memorable journalistic coups. His first occurred in 1949, when "Shoeless" Joe Jackson gave Bisher and Sport Magazine his only interview since 1919, the year Jackson was ousted from baseball in the "Black Sox" scandal.
Bisher played golf with Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen, among many others. Covering the Masters in 1954, he watched in awe as amateur Billy Joe Patton "laughed his way" through the course, shooting a hole in one on his way to nearly snatching the green jacket from Sam Snead. Patton lost by one stroke, and Bisher later recounted the golfer's wistful comment, Bisher's favorite golf quote in all his years of writing about the sport: "I could have handled the fame, I could have handled the money. But I doubt if I could have handled the women."
Bisher died in Atlanta on March 18, 2012, after suffering a heart attack.
(As a veteran sportswriter, Furman Bisher has been Face to...)
In 1954 Furman married Montyne Harrell, with whom he had three sons. Eventually the couple divorced, and Bisher married Lynda Landon in 1991.