Horse named after Furman Bisher

Bisher called it an honor, though he wondered, "I've got such an odd name. Who the hell would want to put that name on a horse?"

Campbell doesn't yet know if the horse will match his namesake's speed and grace on deadline, but he knows one thing.

"He's prettier than Furman," Campbell said.

Campbell's friendship with Bisher (the human) goes back 45 years. Campbell owned Dogwood Farm when it was located in Greenville, Ga., and maintained an office in Atlanta. Given Bisher's expertise in horse racing – he covered every Kentucky Derby from 1950 to 2007 before his retirement from the AJC in 2009 at the age of 90 – the two came to know each other well. They stayed in touch after Campbell moved his operation to Aiken in 1987.

"I think Furman's one of the greatest sportswriters of all-time," Campbell said.

After playing with the idea of naming a horse after his friend, Campbell purchased a colt this August, colored like a copper penny with four white socks and a white blaze on his face.

Said Campbell, "He's a knockout and I thought, this is the one."

Bisher (the writer) joins estimable company. Campbell has also named horses after Babe Ruth, boxer Jack Dempsey, two-time Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila and football legend Bronko Nagurski, as well as several friends.

It is actually the second horse to be named after Bisher, author of more than 10,000 columns in the AJC and an indelible influence on the Georgia sporting landscape. The columnist owned a horse with football great Sam Huff that Huff named "Bisher."

Furman Bisher (the horse) has been training in Aiken and will begin competing next year. He would be eligible to run at Churchill Downs in May 2012.

"That's the dream that you have," Campbell said. "It'd be fine with me if this one did it."

It would make for a pretty good column.

"I’m getting long in years," said Bisher, 91. "I hope he hurries up."