A tall and muscular athlete, he won All-American honours while at the University of Texas and was the 1975 World University champion in the shot put. A silver medal at the 1975 Pan American Games was followed by his first Olympic appearance at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He won a Commonwealth Games bronze on home turf in 1978 and also set a Canadian record of 20.83 m in the shot put that year.
He began studying at the University of Texas in 1972 and ranked sixth in the shot put at the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship the next year.[1] Muscular in build and standing at six foot six inches tall (1.98 m),[2] he improved to fourth place at the following year's competition. During his time competing for the college's Texas Longhorns athletic team he earned All-American honours three times: outdoors in 1973β1974, and indoors in 1974.[3]
Bish was always ranked in the top 10 in the world as a thrower and was considered to be one of the strongest men in the world.