So long to the "SEC Seer"

Longtime reader, first time starting a thread.

Ed Shearer, who has served as the prognosticator on Southeastern Conference football for The Associated Press since 1969, is retiring effective Friday. I don't know all the details of Ed's career, but here are a few highlights:

He started with the AP in 1965 in Little Rock, Ark., then came to Atlanta four years later. He's done a little bit of everything over the years, including the Olympics multiple times (he once told me LA in 1984 was his favorite Games). When I was with the AP in Atlanta, I loved listening to his yarns regarding covering Pete Maravich in college and the NBA, interviews with Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech and most everything else. He is an old-school journalist who helped me immensely.

Over the past several years, he's done mostly desk shifts with the AP, but still cranked out the Seer every week during football season. I, for one, will miss that this fall.

Just thought everyone should know.

 

Kind of sad. We never ran the Seer column, but I enjoyed reading it on the wire every week. It never failed to get me fired up for the weekend.

 

Ran it every Saturday in our GameDay section. He did a hell of a job picking the games in the league.

 

Sad to see him go.

 

Damn. The weekly Seer picks were a staple at my first gig.

I was told once Ed never set foot on the course at The Masters and always "watched" it from the press room, but I don't know if that is correct.

 

I hear that Shearer is a pinball wizard. Just loves him some pinball.
The SEC seer was scary accurate, I always looked forward to reading it on the wire, even though it never ran.