Legendary tennis commentator Bud Collins dies at 86
By Kelyn Soong
Tennis commentator Bud Collins, seen here in 1993, has died at age 86. (AP photo/Gill Allen)
Bud Collins, a passionate advocate for tennis whose relationship with the sport began more than a half-century ago, died Friday in his home in Brookline, Mass., according to the Boston Globe. Collins was 86.
Collins was an influential tennis writer and historian and revolutionized sports journalism when he began to offer commentary on camera in the early 1960s. Despite his failing health, Collins traveled last September to New York for the U.S. Open, where the media center was dedicated and named in his honor.
Born Arthur Worth Collins, he was simply known as “Bud” to those in the tennis community and his TV audience. A native of Berea, Ohio, Collins’s first love was baseball and the newspaper business. He didn’t know much about tennis growing up, but began covering the sport for the Boston Herald in the late 1950s, starting at the Massachusetts Women’s Championship at Longwood Cricket Club. It was then that Collins acquired a true appreciation for the sport.