Driving Mr. Bisher: A car ride to Clemson that changed one life
Furman with Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1949. I wasn't around. (AJC photo)
November 24, 1984: I did something I hadn’t done before and would never do again. I drove Furman Bisher to a college football game.
Clemson was playing South Carolina — the Gamecocks were very good that year — and we had only one parking pass. So we met somewhere off West Paces Ferry and he seated himself in my Corolla and off we went.
It was two hours to Clemson, plus another 30 because we got stuck in game traffic. (Being relatively new at the ol’ AJC, I hadn’t yet mastered the David Davidson Back Way — get off at Fair Play and take back roads through Seneca.) And we hadn’t passed Roswell Road before Furman said something that made me start doing a bit of math.
For reasons unknown, I’d mentioned Sandy Koufax. Said Furman: “I met Sandy when he was a rookie in Dodgers camp.” I thought to myself: OK, Koufax was a rookie in 1955; I’d been born in 1955.
I was new at the AJC in 1984 — I’d started in March — but I’d worked at the Lexington Herald-Leader for six years. I was 28, and I’d been around a little. But with that one throwaway line about the great Koufax the great Furman Bisher reminded me (without meaning to remind me of anything, I should stress) that he’d been covering sports longer than I’d been on this Earth. So I did something that, to this day, strikes me as maybe the only smart thing I’ve ever done:
I shut up and listened.
He told me stories, named names, retraced the steps of a life that was already in its 67th year. I said just enough to fill in the spaces, and I learned more in those 2 1/2 hours than I did in every journalism class I’d ever taken. He was complimentary of my early efforts at paper, and he noted that he liked the one column a week I’d settled into doing for the Tuesday Journal — yes, we had two papers back in those olden days — as his backup. And then he said something that I would have written down had my hands not been on the wheel.
“I’m going to take a couple of weeks off soon. You should get a bunch of column ideas together and be ready.”
I did, and I was. I wrote a column every day for the Journal for two weeks, and I guess I managed not to mess up too much. Because after two weeks Van McKenzie, the man who’d hired me, started finding reasons to have me write more than the one Tuesday column. It sounds overly dramatic to say those two weeks changed my vocational life, but they kind of did.
We got to Clemson. We covered the game. South Carolina drove 86 yards to win by a point and finish its regular season 10-1. On the way back we mostly talked about what we’d seen and the Georgia-Georgia Tech game upcoming the next week. (Furman thought Tech had a great chance to win, and by Jove it did.) We got back, and I let him out. I doubt Furman ever thought about the ride again in his life. I remember it still.
He and I would talk many more times over many more years at many different venues, but that day in the car I felt as if I’d tapped into something deeper than the usual sportswriter workspeak. I’d been given a crash course in a Hall of Famer’s personal history. I drove home feeling both edified and awed. Furman could have just treated me like some clod giving him a ride, but he didn’t.
I don’t think I ever thanked him properly — in my lame defense, we were technically colleagues, and it’s bad form for one colleague to gush over another — but I should have. He made me feel as if I were a peer, when we both knew good and well I was nothing of the sort.
By Mark Bradley
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177 comments Add your comment
Lowcountry Bulldawg
March 19th, 2012
12:17 pm
Beautiful article Mark.
Say what Bradley, SC was very good in 84?
March 19th, 2012
12:18 pm
WAIT. That year was a joke in football anyway. BYU played a 7-4 MI team to win the mythical national championship.
Remember Levell Edwards has as many National Championships as the Ole Ball Coach Spurrier. You will never hear Levell Edwards considered great but yet the anchors always slobber over Spurrier.
IL Jacket
March 19th, 2012
12:20 pm
My sympathies to the Bisher family. As a teenager growing up in Georgia, it was a great pleasure reading Furman’s columns. They were very evocative and brought clarity to whatever sports event it was he was describing. He had such a unique voice and invariably left you thinking about more than the outcome of the game. It was a pleasure to have read him and all of us are poorer for his loss.
Marvin Mangrum
March 19th, 2012
12:25 pm
Sorry, Mark, I do not remember but it seems your first column twas in the spring, I actually remember, kinda, but Ill tell you this, some of the best I ever read worked there. I do hope later on I get to see and read them even more. But Bisher twas the King. He got your attention, built on it, explained enuf to make you happy, then he closed it all out. I miss him already, The Masters will feel odd.
Rickster
March 19th, 2012
12:25 pm
According to Furman, he saw ’selah’ in the Bible and liked it, but had idea what it meant.
carolinajacket
March 19th, 2012
12:33 pm
Danforth, Mehre, Outlar, Roberts, and now Bisher. The giants of my youth are gone and will be greatly missed. They added greatly to a young sports fan’s life.
Matt Jenkins
March 19th, 2012
12:34 pm
One of the Greatest. Mr. Munson and now Mr. Bisher, Southern Sports will never be the same.
rlinaug
March 19th, 2012
12:38 pm
Mark, you’re pretty good at what you do, too. I appreciate your self-deprecating remarks but I think you’re really good at what you do.
Technically Correct
March 19th, 2012
12:42 pm
He was an Atlanta sports icon and will be sorely missed.
Just saying..
March 19th, 2012
12:48 pm
Furman & Jesse were part of my every day growing up. Thanks for bringing that back, Mark.
dtanner
March 19th, 2012
12:48 pm
i remember when his son died a few years ago,he wrote a very pensive and touching article
Dennis Claridge
March 19th, 2012
12:55 pm
Some great writers at AJC over the years. I grew up reading Jesse Outlar in the morning paper and Furman Bisher in the evening. Every Thanksgiving Day the first thing I’d do is read Furman’s column about his many blessings – and realize just how many I had as well. It’s rare the writer who can touch your soul like that………..and I’m thankful that I had the chance to read his thoughts every day. Keep up the tradition Mark.
froggy
March 19th, 2012
1:00 pm
Well done, Mark. No finer tribute to the great columnist than a great column.
As a former AJC’er (in marketing, not news) Lord, some great stories about Furman, who was a force of nature. Like all the great ones he had a healthy ego — for years he complained bitterly that we had changed the football picks contest from “Beat Bisher” to “Beat the Press.” We once shot a photo of him at Augusta National for a promo ad and he called up, yelling, “You made me look like a GD drug addict!” (These were the pre-PhotoShop days). And when Sports relocated to a different floor, the chief of news administration had Furman’s historic office documented like an archeological dig before moving it — so terrified was he of Furman finding one photo or trinket out of place.
What a memorable guy — just riding the elevator with him was a treat — and if he ever gave you a stock tip you were doubly lucky. We won’t see his likes again…
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 19th, 2012
1:02 pm
Good Article Mark,
A sad day. What a fine man he was. RIP Mr. Bisher.
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 19th, 2012
1:02 pm
I hope the Masters does a special tribute to him. He earned it.
Fred ™
March 19th, 2012
1:09 pm
Mark Bradley
March 19th, 2012
11:05 am
Someday I’ll tell y’all about my job interview with Mr. Jim Minter.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I can only imagine. I emailed and asked Rick to go over some NASCAR articles I wrote. He ripped them to shreds. I loved it lol. I learned more from the few articles I sent and he critiqued than anywhere else. He said he learned from his dad. Said his articles looked like they were bleeding from all the red ink his dad cut them up with……..
Mark F.
March 19th, 2012
1:15 pm
Sad day indeed.
In all my interactions with Furman, whether it be in the Atlanta-Fulton County press box or at Augusta, he was simply a nice genuine guy.
I have been fortunate to know he and Ernie Johnson Sr. pretty well and they are very similar. They really made someone feel like they knew them all their lives. Needless to say, they were both great at their given professions.
I have an autographed AJC pull out section that was run when he retired. I am so glad I asked him to sign it. It now has so much more meaning.
RIP Furman!
Some of my favorites
March 19th, 2012
1:19 pm
Been reading the Atlanta papers off and on since the 50s. Furman was certainly a talented writer, and his record of longevity will be hard to match. I thought Dave Kindred was excellent also, and wished he had stayed in Atlanta longer. He wrote a book about Kentucky basketball where I first learned of King Kelly Coleman.
Mark, you have written some great columns over the years. Some of my favorites include the one comparing Herschel and Bo, one lauding Joe Dean upon his retiring from TV color man, and finally about Archie and Peyton. Keep up the good work.
how2fish
March 19th, 2012
1:23 pm
Mark this one was nearly as good as your Munson tribute, I just wish you hadn’t had to write it…RIP Furman .
jeffrey d
March 19th, 2012
1:25 pm
In 1984, SC was 10-1 before losing to OKSU in the bowl. On further review however, USC strength of schedule was 49th out of 110 schools. OKSU schedule was 71.
Already starting with your slant on reality
Well somebody completely missed the point of this article
Robert Bohler
March 19th, 2012
1:26 pm
Mark – great coverage here, in Schultz’s column and elsewhere in the AJC. A question, though: why does none of the coverage recognize that Bisher didn’t quit writing in ‘09, he just quit writing for the AJC? He continued writing columns, his last earlier this month, for several north Georgia dailies. It was in his blood.
Buckheadboy
March 19th, 2012
1:31 pm
Mr. Bisher, yours was a voice whose silence in passing rings louder still, thanks to the powerful prose – so clean, clear and precise (and always thoughtfully entertaining) – with which you graced your readers. May your Heaven abound with Amen Corners and an abundance of crisp autumn Saturdays for that near-perfect sport of humankind. And, upon your passing from death unto life, I pray the first person you met in Heaven was Roger, and that your reunion with your beloved son was sweeter and richer with feeling than you ever dreamed it would be. To God be thanks that He called you to be a sportswriter. May God also bless your family, friends, and devoted readers; and those who someday, too, will discover your brilliant canvases of characters, of faces and places and events long past that, because of your masterful touch with words, bring them closer than yesterday.
Rickster
March 19th, 2012
1:44 pm
This column may be a bit (27+ years) late, but this is Mark’s first Thanksgiving column.
chris
March 19th, 2012
1:57 pm
well said Mark
I was a freshman at UGA in 84 and liked your stuff right away
I’m sure Bisher knew talent and considered you a respected colleague, if not an equal
Rickster
March 19th, 2012
2:03 pm
I just wish Furman could have held on three more weeks. I would have loved to have him cover just one more Masters. I hope ANGC does something special to honor him.
Old School
March 19th, 2012
2:04 pm
Great stuff Mark, sure miss the old days of the AJC. FB, Lewis Grizzard, Celestine Sibley, (just to name a few of my favorites) were very talented journalists who enjoyed their job and took pride in their work. It seems you rarely see that anymore but I hope you continue their fine example with your stellar work. Thanks.
A Fan
March 19th, 2012
2:19 pm
Remarkable, Crusty at times, True Southern Gentleman at other times. Glad to hear that people also remembered Jessie Outler. You have to move from Atlanta for a time to really appreciate what the AJC really meant to your deily routine. And If you were fortunate enough to hear him, you’ll remember that laugh always. I had the fortune to see him and Lewis on the same spot/ When Furman looked at Lewis just right, Lewis almost stood at attention. Then Furman would laugh and Lewis would have to come up with some great Lewisisum about it. Chances are, (No offense Bradley) you will not experience this type of journalisum again. RIP Mr. Bisher.. And Mark, that ride to Clemson would be one I’d never forget either. Be Blessed.
Mark
March 19th, 2012
2:24 pm
I started “conversing” with Mr. Bisher in the mid-80’s when I left the SE and before blogs were the thing. He would write back in long emails and share thoughts on all kinds of topics as if we had known each other forever. Later, I had the chance to stand under the pines with him between 14/15 at Augusta and watch Normal and Olazabel putting on #13 – I introduced myself and he remembered our notes – one of the few journalists you would see walking the grounds and not just sitting in the press room by the clubhouse. Mr. Bisher was one of us – a great sports fan who got to live his life with what he loved. I’ve read his articles since 1957 – can’t imagine a Masters without him.
billcanoe
March 19th, 2012
2:29 pm
Furman was one of the great ones, and he will be missed unlike any other. Touching column; very well written.
Covers like the Dew
March 19th, 2012
2:30 pm
Riding around with Furman Bisher
28 years ago is pretty cool Mark.
Also Ashley
March 19th, 2012
2:33 pm
It’s definitely the end of an era. Larry Munson, Lewis Grizzard, Furman Bisher, and Skip Caray all gone.
Mark Bradley, it’s up to you to carry the torch!
whatsgoingon
March 19th, 2012
2:35 pm
Great piece of writing – Mark. I, as a kid growing up in Atlanta during the 60’s and 70’s, could not wait to read Mr. Bisher’s articles in the paper (of course, I had to wait until my dad read it first). I even still have the T-shirt from the football picks contest he used to run in the late 70s that said “I Beat Bisher” – one of the few times I actually beat him in his picks.
What an legend he was – it’s like great baseball (and football) announcers of the day who have now passed away – we will likely never see the likes of those gentlemen in print (no offense, Mark) or in voice ever again.
Covers like the Dew
March 19th, 2012
2:52 pm
on the higher plateau.
ben
March 19th, 2012
2:55 pm
i remember teh tech game. dewberry. lol
JJ
March 19th, 2012
2:59 pm
So mark are you returning the favor and helping out some young whipper snapper
bkinkennesaw
March 19th, 2012
3:12 pm
Thanks for sharing that story Mark. He was a great columnist and I am sure an even better person. He will be missed.
Dr. Warren
March 19th, 2012
3:17 pm
Recently I thumbed through the journal I’d kept during a semester abroad in London back in ‘88. The writing is very much a college student’s—reflections on British girls, beer, books, my housemates, and of course, the weather. I fancied myself sort of a young literateur, I can see. But what stands out when I read it 24 years later, especially on this day, is the strange fact that I ended many of the daily entries with a word whose meaning I certainly did not know: Selah. That fact should tell you something about Furman Bisher’s influence on kids who grew up in Atlanta.
Hillbilly D
March 19th, 2012
3:36 pm
We’ll probably never see the likes of Furman again. If you don’t remember when Furman, Mehre and Outlar were writing, you missed something.
Gumby
March 19th, 2012
3:47 pm
I always enjoyed his columns and he did something for me I’ll never forget. In 2005 my son was getting weeks away from deploying to Iraq. I wrote Furman of my plans to take my son to a Braves game before he left and wanted to try to do something special for him during BP. Furman was gracious enough to write back and give me a name with the Braves organization to contact. He personalized it by telling me his grandson was also being deployed and hoped the best for them both. We emailed each other a few times after that. A truly great writer and a gentleman.
moboman
March 19th, 2012
3:49 pm
Well written Mark. It was almost Fumanesque. Both Furman and Lewis both had a way of expressing themselves in a way that not only made a point, but gave you a little insight into them as people. I miss that. So does the AJC.
Ted M
March 19th, 2012
4:17 pm
So Mark have you taken any “Kid” sportswriters under your wing and showed them the ropes? Ted
Say what Bradley, SC was very good in 84?
March 19th, 2012
4:41 pm
jeffrey d, I guess you give Bradley card blanc to rewrite history. SC finished 11 places behind BYU (are you kidding me) and Bradley considers SC “very good”. Palease.
Tom Ryan
March 19th, 2012
5:03 pm
Very nicely done, Mark. You mentioned that Furman is a Hall of Famer. There is one Hall of Fame that he is not in but should be included, in my opinion, and that is the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. (He has been nominated but not elected.) I asked him a year or two ago if he was bothered by that snub and he replied that he didn’t know that there was a Georgia Writers Hall of Fame!
Undoubtedly most literary experts would not consider a sportswriter as being possibly a literary giant, but Furman was just that as he was a great, great writer. (I have written five books, not sports related, so I know great writing when I see it.) Yes, Grayson Scott, Furman is unquestionably one of the greatest sportswriters of all time and he is also right there with the late Shirley Povich in terms of length of his writing career, and he outlived Povich by about 6 months.
Growing up in Atlanta and reading his columns since the 1950s, I almost felt as though I knew him long before I began interacting with him. At first I almost felt like a VIP when he began replying to me (starting in 1983), but a close friend who is retired from Cox Enterprises told me that he replied to everybody.
I finally met him and spoke with him briefly at the Tech Lunch Bunch gathering on 12/13/10. I mentioned that we had corresponded over the years and he said “I hope I was polite”. Not exactly the type of response that I might have expected from a writer who came down hard on people and institutions in his column when he thought that was appropriate and was apparently feared by some sportswriters who worked under him, as Lee Walburn has indicated. He obviously had high standards and was a classy person. There may never be another Furman Bisher. RIP, Furman.
ATLcracker
March 19th, 2012
5:12 pm
I was born in 1949 and grew up in Atlanta. We always bought both papers-the morning Constitution and the afternoon Journal. Does anyone else still remember the sequential pictures they would publish to show what happened on the important football plays ? I still treasure those images. I read every word Mr. Bisher wrote and when I was a teenager he casually mentioned in a column that he had tried a brand new product and really liked it-EDGE shaving cream. I went out and bought a can and now almost 50 years later I am still using it. I wonder what far reaching influences Mark, Jeff and Dave will have.
Whopper Dawg
March 19th, 2012
5:23 pm
Well done, Mark.
Tom Ryan
March 19th, 2012
5:28 pm
I am several years older than you, ATLcracker, and, yes, I remember those sequential pictures quite well. That was an important feature of the Sunday sports section during football season.
Hillbilly D
March 19th, 2012
5:41 pm
Does anyone else still remember the sequential pictures they would publish to show what happened on the important football plays ?
I do. That was the first thing I looked at in the Sunday paper.
phil
March 19th, 2012
5:51 pm
Also Ashley
March 19th, 2012
2:33 pm
It’s definitely the end of an era. Larry Munson, Lewis Grizzard, Furman Bisher, and Skip Caray all gone.
Mark Bradley, it’s up to you to carry the torch!
****************
But will it be dropped? Bad joke. Sorry for your loss, Mark. Keep up the good work…
BozinGa
March 19th, 2012
6:18 pm
Thanksgiving morning will never be quite the same.
dadgumit
March 19th, 2012
6:39 pm
Nice Mark a tender & fitting tribute.pretty damn good tale too. One afternoon a couple of years ago,while in traffic,I was surfing the AM dials. I caught the juvenile delinquents @ 790 THE ZONE mocking him.. I was saddened by the pathetic attempt at humor at such a fine gentleman’s expense. Reprobates shouldn’t use words like journalism if they can’t spell it correctly and use it in a sentence.