1988: Furman Bisher

1988 Red Smith Award winner Furman Bisher was a columnist at the Atlanta Journal Constitution for 59 years. His first column for the AJC was in the April 15, 1950 paper and his final column there was in the Oct 11, 2009 paper.

By the time he died in 2012, Bisher estimated that he had written around 15,000 daily sports columns, 1,200 magazine articles and more than a dozen books. When he turned 90 in 2009, he had covered every Kentucky Derby since 1950 and every Super Bowl except the first.

Bisher served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant from 1941 to 1945, editing a military newspaper. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1938 and became the editor of the Lumberton (N.C.) Voice at the age of 20. He also worked at the High Point (N.C.) Enterprise and the Charlotte News before moving on to the AJC.

Bisher is a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame and The International Golf Writers Hall of Fame. He was chosen as Georgia Sportswriter of the Year 16 times.