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The Beatles’ film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” and its title song bring Furman Bisher to mind. Furman Bisher?  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports columnist? The one on the scene at the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece? In 1896? How can that be?

Furman Bisher and The Beatles commingle in my dexterous (some would say convoluted) mind due to a ’90s column Bisher wrote for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He wrote of an evening on a summer trip when the Atlanta Braves were off, making him wonder what he and his wife would watch on television instead.  “A Hard Day’s Night” was on one of the cable channels. Despite being a worldly sort, Bisher told his wife he knew little about The Beatles and could not even name one of their songs. His wife figured better, indicating he had heard their songs many times and would quickly recognize them.

So he and his wife settled in front of the TV and watched “A Hard Day’s Night.”  As far as Bisher was concerned, it was a good night. He liked the film, found it funny and enjoyed The Beatles’ music. He wrote about the film. His enthusiasm for a movie made more than 30 years earlier impressed a lot of the newspaper’s readers. I was among those who appreciated Bisher’s recognition of The Beatles’ talents. In the AJC parking lot on Fairlie Street a few days after the column ran, I saw Furman and mentioned how much I enjoyed his story. Always genial, he said thanks, and quite amused, remarked on how more people had commented on that column than any he had written in a long time.

So October 11, 2009 rolls around and the last column by Furman Bisher runs in the AJC.  Someone out there is calling it the end of an era. Never mind that. It’s the end of several eras. Think of 1950 when Furman Bisher began writing for the old Atlanta Constitution.  (Note: Bisher began his career at the Lumberton, N.C., Voice,  became an editor in 1940 for the Charlotte News, was named sports editor for the Constitution in 1950, and moved to The Atlanta Journal in 1957.)

There were no professional sports teams in Atlanta.  The football teams at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia were the only big-time teams in the state. And this was years, even decades, before collegiate sports marched down the aisle with television.  It was not a perfect or just world, but it was quieter.  However, a lot of us in and around Atlanta would have enjoyed some major league noise. Many of us Southern kids wondered what it must be like to live in towns with professional teams. In the first half of the ’60s Bisher advocated, in his columns and elsewhere, for Atlanta to become big league. That made him heroic to local sports fans. And even when Atlanta remained a minor league town, he gave it the old school try, delivering major league results with his columns.  From Bobby Jones to Chipper Jones, Furman Bisher always wrote of sports with the requisite grittiness and grace intact. Nearly everyday there was something new to learn about sports or life in his columns.

1966 was the year of deliverance for Atlantans longing for major league recognition and most importantly, major league teams. The Milwaukee Braves moved into the newly constructed Atlanta Stadium and a few months later, the Falcons, Atlanta’s NFL expansion team, joined them. Atlanta was a big league town. It had finally joined Cincinnati, San Francisco, Chicago, New York (!) and other cities in the nation — and the nation’s newspapers — with daily major league datelines. This was recognition and respect. Furman Bisher’s advocacy was pivotal, as far as we were concerned.

In that year that still seems golden, I was 12 and delivered The Atlanta Journal in my neighborhood. Every afternoon (except Sundays, when morning duty was required) I would ride my bike to the house where I’d gather the 40-50 papers to be delivered. But first I had to read the sports section. Then it seemed like I was reading it hot off the press. That was perhaps the prime benefit of the job, getting to learn the latest on the Braves, Falcons and others in the world of sports. Of course, there was always the column by Furman Bisher. It was definitely required reading before my customers got their papers. Bisher would report, intone and opine on the news that intrigued me most. From time to time he would include subjects new to me and I would take all that in as well. Eventually I would include other sections of the newspaper in my reading before commencing on the route. A lifetime habit, one most pleasurable, was developing. It gives one pause to think about that now as the newspaper industry faces its many challenges. Go without reading the newspaper? Do we go without food next?

The 43 years since my first year in the newspaper business and Atlanta’s first year as a major league town have been full of surprises. Some things have simply been baffling. None of us would have predicted 14 straight division titles for the Braves and it would have been laughable to consider that, still in 2009, the Falcons were yet to complete two straight winning seasons. But during all those years, Furman Bisher has observed and reported, in a graceful and eloquent manner, on what was happening on the fields we watched so closely. There were times when Bisher would offer an opinion or make a remark that seemed too conservative or old world. Yet that did not keep me from reading his column any day that it ran. On many of those days, even if he wrote on a subject that normally did not grab my attention, I would still read it and perhaps consider it the best piece of writing in the newspaper that day.

Having seen Furman Bisher in the AJC building in the 27 years I worked there, I was always impressed with his good nature and sense of contentment. He was friendly to all, young and old, and enthusiastic about what he did everyday. People like that are very fortunate and we’re fortunate when such enthusiasm is shared.

1. Cliff Green says:

   October 11, 2009 at 10:07 pm

   After Ralph McGill, Furman Bisher was the only “major leaguer” we had here for many, many years. I hope newspaper readers (Are any left?) recognize that he was giant in his time.

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2. Dallas says:

   October 12, 2009 at 9:17 am

   Giant, indeed. And a gentleman. Wonderful story.

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3. Ron Taylor says:

   October 12, 2009 at 11:10 am

   Furman Bisher remains one of my journalistic heroes, and I don’t have many. His columns were not just analysis but wonderful little stories of human struggle, foibles and incredible triumph. His was one of the few columns I regularly read from beginning to end. He even made golf seem exciting. And he wrote better at 90 than most his much younger colleagues. I think most of us can only wish that our talent and insight last that long.

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4. Jim Auchmutey says:

   October 12, 2009 at 11:29 am

   My father used to read Furman’s Thanksgiving columns aloud to the family. It was Dickens for Christmas, Bisher for Turkey Day. Nice piece, Jeff. I remember that Beatles column well and had a similar conversation with Furman about it. I think I asked him who is favorite Beatle was.

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5. Brent Gilroy says:

   October 12, 2009 at 3:36 pm

   Thanks, Jeff. Furman’s writing was part of what drew me into reading the Journal every day (and for at least a brief newspaper career, before other things). He was honest, clever and very human.

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6. Pat Taylor says:

   October 12, 2009 at 5:19 pm

   I remember coming to Atlanta from Charlotte to watch games in the early years after the Braves arrived, and reading columns by Bisher during the weekend series. It seemed so major league to a young teen. I had never been to NY at that point, but it didn’t matter because as far as I was concerned there wasn’t much difference. I poured over every word about the Braves and remember Bisher’s being the voice of wisdom. As a 30 year vet in a newspaper career, he may have even had some effect on my choice to get into the business.

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7. Billy Mallard says:

   October 13, 2009 at 12:52 am

   Bisher was also one of the more astute readers of the AJC Business Section, I found in my brief sojourn there.

   At the time I didn’t think it was fair that he could know so much about sports while also having a sharper eye than I did for the trends and details on “my” section of the paper.

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8. Bill King says:

   October 13, 2009 at 5:55 pm

   I, too, was an Atlanta Journal paperboy in the mid-1960s, over in Athens. I already knew that newspapering was what I wanted to do when I grew up (yes, a misguided youth) and I avidly read the Journal every day, especially Bisher, whom I’d seen on TV (he hosted a sports roundtable show that came on Sundays right before or after the UGA football coach’s show). Those were the days when the Sunday sports section in the fall was brimming with staff-written accounts of all the great football games across the South, and most were accompanied by a little mug shot of the reporter. So I knew the faces as well as the names, which made it even more of a big deal to me when I came to work at 72 Marietta Street. As the years went by, I frequently disagreed with Bisher’s viewpoints, but I always read him. And his Thanksgiving columns always got to me. A few years ago he sat next to me at an AJC 25 Year Club banquet and he was funny and quite charming. And now I believe I’m the senior newsroom employee at the AJC. OMG, as my daughter would say.

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