In 1967 Furman Bisher was the Sports Editor of the Atlanta Constitution.  In that year a new phenomenon came to Atlanta, professional soccer.  It became one of his many tasks to comment on the introduction, conduct, development, success, and place of soccer in the sports world, and in our local culture and community.  He did so with candor, common sense, and a keen insight that played an important part in the positive growth and development of soccer in Georgia.
 

Many people know that Furman Bisher was born in the town of Denton, North Carolina.  A little know fact is that he played soccer while a student at Furman University, and managed to score a goal (accidentally) for Clemson University in his first game.  He earned his journalism degree at the University of North Carolina, and then saw service in World War II.  After a stint as sports editor at the Charlotte News, he came to the Atlanta Constitution in the 1950s, and later to the Atlanta Journal.  He was a columnist for the Sporting News, moderated a weekly television show, authored eight books and many articles, and served in many sports and charity-related organizations.
 

His previous recognition’s include the Georgia Associated Press Sports Writing Award, the United Press International Writing Award, Turf Writing Award, College Sports Information Directors Award, Sigma Delta Chi Sports Commentary Award, North Carolina Governor’s Award, University of North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year, Georgia Sportswriter of the Year, Distinguished Alumnus of Furman University, the Red Smith Sports writing Award, Bobby Jones Sportsman of the Year Award, National Sportscasters and Sportswriter’s Hall of Fame, International Golf Writers Hall of Fame, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award, The Lincoln Nerden Golf Journalism Award and now the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
 

Furman’s contribution to Georgia Soccer was that of the voice of calm reason.  While man of us were often carried away on flights of unrealistic enthusiasm in those early days into expectations beyond what was reasonable, his careful analysis and exposition of the true state of our soccer programs, the needs for development at all levels, and its outlook in terms of time and effort needed always served to help the thoughtful take stock and plan realistically for the future.  No matter how often he was besieged by overly enthusiastic soccer “fanatics” that mistakenly took his candor and objective analysis as opposition to soccer, he carefully and patiently explored and described our true state.  In short, he encouraged us with the truth.  In that way, he helped guide the efforts of the thoughtful.
 

Another major contribution was that he saw that soccer was covered in proportion to its place at the time in the sports scene.  In those days most national and regional media completely ignored soccer, but we in Georgia enjoyed a fair and accurate reporting of the game.  His contributions to Georgia soccer are invaluable.