Besides being a champion player and a coach, he forged a reputation as a top journalist, author, commentator and historian in the sport he loved.
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Arthur “Bud” Collins popularized tennis for millions of Americans in its boom years after the start of the Open era in 1968, when professionals were finally allowed to compete for the major championships.
According to the paper, he first did some extra reporting for Boston’s WGBH-TV after he joined the Globe. But those who knew him best will remember that no one had a better friend than Bud Collins.
As the Globe’s obituary put it: “In the early 1960s, after joining the Globe as a tennis writer, Bud Collins took a giant leap into the future of sports journalism when he stepped in front of a TV camera to offer commentary”.
During his career, Collins was awarded the most prestigious sports writing honor, the Red Smith Award, and was inducted into the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame in 2002.
Without Collins, the sport of tennis will have a notable void this summer. He also wrote travel features and covered Muhammad Ali when he was still known as Cassius Clay. “I have said this about others before him, just never with more feeling than I do today: He is not just survived by Anita, and step-children, and grandchildren”.
Collins is credited with bringing tennis to the masses. In addition to writing about tennis he had some success playing, as in 1961 he won the U.S. Indoor mixed doubles title with Janet Hopps.
The facebook page “Bud Collins and The Bud Collins History of Tennis book” posted the above recently. He hosted a media tournament at the U.S. Open for years. “I am heartbroken at the news of the passing of Bud Collins, a great friend to me personally and an irreplaceable presence in the sport of tennis”, USTA Chairman Katrina Adams said in a statement.
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A legend in the world of tennis has died. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
