| Bud Collins | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 17, 1929 Lima, Ohio |
| Occupation | Sports Columnist TV Commentator |
Arthur Worth "Bud" Collins, Jr. (born June 17, 1929 in Lima, Ohio) is an American journalist and television sportscaster, best known for his tennis commentary. Collins is married to photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen.
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Collins is a 1947 graduate of Berea High School in Berea, Ohio and a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. After his U.S. Army service, Collins decided to attend Boston University graduate school. From 1959–1963 he served as the tennis coach at Brandeis University, where one of his players was Abbie Hoffman.
Collins started writing for the Boston Herald as a sportswriter while he was a student at Boston University. In 1963, he moved to the Boston Globe and also began doing tennis commentary for Boston's Public Broadcasting Service outlet, WGBH. From 1968-72, he worked for CBS Sports during its coverage of the US Open tournament, moving to NBC Sports in 1972 to work that network's Wimbledon coverage. He also teamed with Donald Dell to call tennis matches for PBS television from 1974-77.
For several years with the Boston Globe, he was a general and political columnist. In 1967, he was a candidate for mayor of Boston.
During the 2007 Wimbledon tournament, Collins announced that NBC had chosen not to renew his contract and was letting him go.[1] Collins had covered tennis for the network for 35 years. He insisted that he had no plans to retire and would continue to cover tennis for the Boston Globe.[2] On July 8, 2007, the final day of the tournament, fellow Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan, on the ESPN TV show The Sports Reporters, ridiculed NBC for this decision. He said the 78-year-old Collins "still has his fastball" and praised the Globe for retaining Collins.
Collins was hired by ESPN on August 7, 2007. He currently teams with onetime NBC partner Dick Enberg on the network's Wimbledon, US Open, French Open, and Australian Open coverage.[3] He has also covered the US Open for XM Satellite Radio.
In 1999, Collins was honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, who awarded him the Red Smith Award, which is America’s most prestigious sports writing honor.
Although Collins has described himself as a "hacker", he is an accomplished tennis player in his own right. He won the U.S. Indoor mixed doubles championship (with Janet Hopps) in 1961, and was a finalist in the French Senior doubles (with Jack Crawford) in 1975.
Collins has written several books, including The Education of a Tennis Player (with Rod Laver, 1971), Evonne! On the Move (with Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 1974), and a memoir, My Life With the Pros (1989). He has also produced several tennis encyclopedias, including The Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, the Bud Collins Tennis Encyclopedia, and Total Tennis.
In 1992, Collins was the host of the 116th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on the USA Network.[4]
In 1994, Collins was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Collins' trademark is his donning of bow ties and "loud" pants, which he has custom-made from unique fabrics he collects while traveling for work. According to Bud's website, all of his pants are fashioned by tailor Charlie Davidson in his Andover Shop in Cambridge, MA.
During telecasts, Collins would often make reference to his fictitious "Uncle Studley," as well as a fanciful dandy known as Fingers Fortescue.
In 2006, he made a cameo appearance as himself in the episode "Spellingg Bee" for the television show Psych.
His papers and manuscripts are housed currently at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.[5]