By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, March 4, 2016

Bud Collins didn't just write the tennis encyclopedia, he was the tennis encyclopedia.

A true tennis Renaissance man, Collins was a tennis writer, player, coach, historian, television analyst, humorist and Hall of Famer. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994.

Above all else, he was a tennis advocate and gentleman who generously shared his passion for the sport he loved with the world.

Collins, who covered tennis for more than a half-century, died today at his Brookline home at the age of 86. He began covering tennis in the early 1960s when he joined The Boston Globe. The Globe's obituary is here.

Born in Lima, Ohio, as Arthur Worth Collins Jr., Bud Collins was a broadcast pioneer and a pivotal figure in the American tennis boon in the 1970s. He began his television broadcast career for WGBH-TV in Boston in the early 1960s. He was a key voice in NBC's Wimbledon coverage for 35 years, including helping launch the network's Breakfast at Wimbledon coverage. Collins later worked for ESPN and Tennis Channel.

An esteemed tennis historian and one of the most prolific writers in the history of the sport, Collins' powerful and unique voice helped shape coverage of the game. He called himself "a scribbler and a babbler" but he may well have been the best friend tennis ever had. The USTA officially named the US Open media center in Collins' honor at a ceremony last August when he attended his 62nd US Open.



An accomplished player, Collins preferred playing barefoot. He won the won the US Indoor Mixed Doubles title while working as the Boston Globe's tennis writer. Collins coached tennis at Brandeis University, including coaching political activist Abbie Hoffman.

"Hoffman may have been a leftist radical politically, Mr. Collins recalled, but he was a conservative player, sticking to the baseline to notch many wins," according to the Boston Globe.

Covering tournaments, Collins combined the knowledge of a college professor with the excited exuberance of a kid cutting school to watch his favorite players compete.

Collins' colorful pants, spirited personality and zest for life made him a beloved figure among players, fans and fellow members of the media. He detected details with the scrutiny of a linesperson and wrote of champions, contenders and characters with depth, compassion and candor.

In describing John McEnroe's five-set triumph over Bjorn Borg in the 1980 U.S. Open for his book, Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia, Collins takes you so close to the action you can almost see Borg's taped fingertips tapping his racquet and the sweat seep from beneath McEnroe's headband as he charges toward the net.

"McEnroe jousted with umpires and with a linesman," Collins writes. "He slammed a racquet against his chair and at one stage he felt so strongly about his game that he handed his weapon to Jack Kramer, seated in a courtside box. Borg served with all the assurance of a waiter in an earthquake. He was reported missing missing in action during the second set. He kicked one ball over the net after breaking his racquet on a serve and it was his best-looking shot in several games."



Collins married Anita Ruthling Klaussen, a photographer and writer, in 1994. They collaborated on both tennis and travel writing for his website Bud Collins Tennis.com.

A lover of alliteration and nicknames, Bud called Steffi Graf "Fraulein Forehand", dubbed Vitas Gerulaitis the "Lithuanian Lion", regarded Roger Federer as "Lord of the Swings", referred to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario as "the Barcelona Bumblebee" and called Chris Evert "Chris America." A list of some of Collins' most memorable nicknames is here.

The Hall of Famer was a master at bringing the game's history to life in his writing. For Collins, tennis was more than a competition, it was a calling. And he was always willing and eager to share the gospel of the game with readers, fans and colleagues.



Collins set out to write the tennis bible and produced a book of revelations for tennis fans. Collins' Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive compilation of tennis history ever published.

"I wanted to call it 'The Real Tennis' Junkie's Bible', but the publisher wouldn't go for it," Collins said in an interview with Tennis Week Magazine."So we compromised with the Total Tennis title. I think it is the ultimate tennis encyclopedia and I really hope people read it and enjoy it."

Collins maintained a heart-felt connection to tennis right through the final days of his life. His wife, Anita, posted a Valentine's Day image of her husband noting that holding a racquet and ball was therapeutic for him.



More than a master of media who covered the sport with wit and clarity, Collins was a tennis muse who graciously took time out to talk tennis with anyone at virtually any time. Though many who came to his book signings or ran into him at tournaments had never met him, they often felt they knew him. Collins' connection with tennis fans was fulfilling.

"I do a signing every day (at tournaments) and I enjoy that very much," Collins once said. "It's a way to have contact with the public. People are always saying 'What are you doing here? Do you have to sell this book?' I say, 'I am working my way through college.' At Newport, we sold out of the book so the response was fantastic. People will ask how long it took me to write it and my stock answer is 'Fifty years'."