ATLANTA (AP) — Ed Shearer, a longtime sports writer with The Associated Press who covered the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series and Hank Aaron’s 715th homer but left his most lasting mark as the “SEC Seer,” a prognosticator of Southern football known throughout the nation, died Monday. He was 82.

Shearer’s son, Jim, said his father’s health deteriorated after he took a fall May 10, breaking bones in his wrist and lower back. He was in hospice care when he died at an assisted-living facility in Talking Rock, a small town in north Georgia.

Working at the AP for more than 40 years, Shearer covered a range of sports but was most passionate about college football.