By John Kim
Special to PGATOUR.com

ATLANTA -- His presence is remarkable, in large part, to how unremarkable it is.

He ambles in to the media center of THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola with an old-fashioned bucket hat and a tote bag in tow. He smiles and nods to practically everyone, then settles into his work station in the front of the room. It seems to be just another day at the office for Furman Bisher, the dean of sports writers in America.

However, this wasn’t just another day. Saturday was Bisher’s 88th birthday, and he is celebrating by doing what he loves best -- covering sports.

“A double snowman isn’t so great on the scorecard,” he laughs, “but it looks pretty good on a birthday cake.”

It has been a fun and fulfilling 88 years. Born in Denton, N.C., James Furman Bisher could have scarcely realized the writer who started out at The Lumberton Voice would one day be inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, the International Golf Writers Hall of Fame, and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

Among many accolades, he has been a recipient of the Red Smith Award for contributions to journalism. His work has been anthologized in Best Sports Stories of the Year 23 times, and in 1996, he won the PGA Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award.

Without a doubt, the sports world, and sports fans in particular, have benefited greatly from his passion -- and immense talent -- of viewing and relating sports news.

In 1940, Bisher was hired as the editor of the Charlotte News. He stayed there for the entire decade save for the four years when he served in the military during World War II. In 1950, he was hired as the sports editor of the Atlanta Constitution.

Seven years later, Bisher became the sports editor and columnist for the Atlanta Journal -- and he still writes columns to this day. Along the way, he has also written for countless other publications including Sports Illustrated, Sport magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. He was a longtime columnist for the Sporting News, as well.

“I was a fan before I was a co-worker,” says Stan Awtrey, who covers golf for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I can’t say I’m a colleague because he’s just on another plane from me. He’s a legend. My father and I used to read his columns together. It’s such a thrill to line up beside him and work and learn.”

Bisher’s legacy extends far beyond any one sport. He has covered more than 50 Kentucky Derbys, every Super Bowl except the first, and was granted the first and only interview by Shoeless Joe Jackson -- 30 years after he was ousted from baseball following the Blacksox Scandal of 1919. He covered the first NASCAR race while an editor of the Charlotte News and his writing is credited with helping Atlanta acquire its major league baseball team. He has seen Cy Young pitch, he has seen Joe Louis box. His one regret in sports?

“I never saw Bobby Jones play golf,” he laments. “I had a good relationship with him, but he was too incapacitated by the time I came to Atlanta. So, no, I never even saw him swing a club.”

Golf, though, is at the forefront of his enduring sports legacy. Among many lasting marks, Bisher was the first to refer to Byron Nelson as “Lord Byron” and he authored the feature story for the debut of GOLF Magazine in 1959. He has also served as president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and the Golf Writers Association of America. He has spent his life giving others a better appreciation of the game.

“My first Masters, the press area was an old Army tent,” Bisher explained. “We used to go out and walk … oh, I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of miles I’ve walked covering golf, but that’s what we did. We went out and walked the course and followed play, and that’s how you covered the tournament.”

He has adapted because time and technology has demanded he do so. With earlier deadlines and electronic media providing immediate scoring, most of the work is now done within the confines of a media center. And though he agrees that the luxuries of technology have made certain things easier, he won’t go as far as to say they are better.

“One of the best sports memories I have is watching Billy Joe Patton almost win the Masters in 1954,” Bisher said. “He would have been the first amateur to win.”

Bisher then laughs as he relays Patton’s line to him a few years later when they discussed the tournament. “It’s probably just as well that I didn’t win,” he recalls Patton saying. “I could have handled the fame, I could have handled the money. But I don’t know if I could have handled the women.”

He takes a moment to search his vast archive of other great sports moments that he’s witnessed.

“The 1977 British Open at Turnberry was the greatest two rounds of competitive golf I’ve ever seen. Nicklaus and Watson were practically in match play, and they were going at it shot for shot,” Bisher says, then leans in as if to share a special insight.

“Not that many people know it, but I was there and I saw it. The crowds in Scotland that year, especially by Sunday, they were so rowdy that the players actually stopped playing and refused to continue until the officials got better control of the situation.”

You could write a few books about Bisher’s collective sports experience -- actually, at least a dozen of them.

“I’ve written 12 books,” he states, and then adds as a nod to his longevity, “all but the last one I did on a typewriter.”

Bisher shies away from making a big deal of his awards or accomplishments. To him, he’s the fortunate one who has been able to witness history and all the greats up close while getting paid to do it. But though he has had the opportunities to see the world, the world knows more because he’s seen it. He doesn’t have time to reflect on that too much. He’s still busy writing his column and making deadlines. His legacy might be the one thing that he shows no interest in writing, but it is certain it is going to read really well.

The only thing is, there’s still a few chapters to go.