Bud Collins’ death is bound to make heavenly tennis a little more awesome, at the expense of the sport here on Earth.
Collins died Friday at his home in Brookfield, Mass., according to The Boston Globe. He was 86.
“Legendary” doesn’t do justice in describing Collins’ career in tennis. 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. Collins often is credited with helping bring tennis from the country clubs into the mainstream, and he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994.
Collins also covered numerous other sports and non-sports topics, including travel and the Vietnam War, but he forever will be linked with the tennis beat.
Collins started writing for the Boston Herald while he was a graduate student at Boston University, and he then moved to the Globe in 1963. Collins was a gifted writer, but his career as a commentator — which began in 1968 and lasted until 2007 — elevated him to national and international fame.
Collins wrote 10 books, including the 1980 tome “Bud Collins’ Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis,” which, along with subsequent editions, stands as the authoritative history of the sport.
The U.S. Open honored Collins at last year’s tournament by naming the media center at Forest Hills after him. The media center plaque which contains Collins’ likeness, reads “Journalist, Commentator, Historian, Mentor, Friend,” according to ESPN.com.
Collins is survived by his wife, Anita Ruthling Klaussen, eight children and stepchildren, and 11 grandchildren.
Thumbnail photo via YouTube/ATPWorldTour
