Bud Collins, the passionate, often irreverent face of tennis for almost half a century in his TV broadcasts and newspaper and magazine columns, died Friday (March 4, 2016) at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 86.
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“In my lifetime, which covers the start of television and goes back to radio, there are only two people nationally, sports voices, that dominated their sport for six decades: Don Dunphy in boxing and Bud Collins in tennis”, the 81-year-old Enberg said.
Collins also wrote 2008’s The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritive Encyclopedia and Record Book, widely regarding as the definitive history of the sport.
ESPN also reported that “he may have been the very first newspaperman to make a transition to television reporting”.
“The USTA is deeply saddened by the passing of legendary tennis journalist Bud Collins”, the USTA said in a statement Friday.
Collins also wrote Globe travel stories from the likes of Cambodia, China, India, Italy, Nepal, Tanzania, and Tibet.
Former tennis great Janet Hopps Adkisson, who was paired with Collins when they won the national indoor mixed doubles at Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline in 1961, told the Herald she will always remember Collins for winning the tournament while playing barefoot.
After working for The Boston Globe, he became an analyst for CBS and NBC.
The U.S. Open’s media center previous year was named for Collins, who attended the ceremony despite his failing health.
Bud Collins attends the 2013 US Open. Collins was born in Lima, Ohio on June 17, 1929.
Without Collins, the sport of tennis will have a notable void this summer. Collins introduced the intricacies of the simple yet complex game, its heroes and the unrelenting rivalries they produced: Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
Billie Jean King proclaimed that Collins was a person of rare significance.
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Collins is survived by his wife, photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen, a daughter, seven stepchildren and 11 grandchildren, according to the Globe.
