Legendary sportswriter Furman Bisher passes away Posted Mar 19, 2012 When Furman University shut down its journalism department heading into the 1936 academic year, it lost a namesake and the football team’s manager, an aspiring sports journalist who needed to shift course on the fly. Furman Bisher arrived in Chapel Hill just two days before the start of classes in the fall of 1936 and immediately assumed the duties he left behind at Furman. (Inside Carolina)