Bud Collins

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.

Education

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.

Career as a journalist

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.

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. [cite web |url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-07-05-nbc-collins_N.htm |title=Collins will call final Wimbledon for NBC |author=Michael Hiestand |publisher="USA Today" |date=2007-07-05] 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". [cite web |url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-tentv9jul09,1,6477699.story?coll=la-headlines-sports |title=Collins makes exit from NBC |author=Larry Stewart |publisher="Los Angeles Times" |date=2007-07-09] 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 ESPN2 on August 7, 2007. He currently teams with onetime NBC partner Dick Enberg on the network's Wimbledon, French Open, and Australian Open coverage. [cite web |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2964389 |title=Collins to be reunited with Enberg on ESPN's tennis coverage |publisher="ESPN.com" |date=2007-08-07] He has also covered the US Open for XM Satellite Radio.

Playing career

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.

Other activities

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. [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LH&s_site=kentucky&p_multi=LH&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB73DBA10741EA2&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Search Results ] ]

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 [http://www.theandovershop.com/ Andover Shop] in Cambridge, MA.

In 2006, made a cameo appearance as himself in the episode Spelling Bee of the television show "Psych".

His papers are housed currently at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University. [ [http://www.bu.edu/archives/holdings/contemporary/cde.html Contemporary Collections] ]

Books

*cite book
last = Laver
first = Rod
authorlink = Rod Laver
coauthors = Bud Collins
title = The Education of a Tennis Player
year = 1971
publisher = Simon & Schuster
isbn = 0-671-20902-7
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors = Rod Laver
title = Rod Laver's Tennis Digest
year = 1973
publisher = Follett
isbn = 0-695-80387-5
*cite book
last = Goolagong
first = Evonne
authorlink = Evonne Goolagong
coauthors = Bud Collins
title = Evonne! On the Move
year = 1975
publisher = Dutton
isbn = 0-525-10115-2
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors = Zander Hollander
title = Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis
year = 1980
publisher = Doubleday
isbn = 0-385-13093-7
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = My Life with the Pros
year = 1989
publisher = E.P. Dutton
isbn = 0-525-24659-2
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors = Zander Hollander
title = Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis
year = 1994
publisher = Gale Research
isbn = 0-810-38988-6
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors = Zander Hollander
title = Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia
edition = 3rd Edition
year = 1997
publisher = Visible Ink Press
isbn = 1-578-59000-0
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors = Zander Hollander
title = Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia
edition =
year = 1998
publisher = Gale
isbn = 1-578-59086-8
*cite book
last = Collins
first = Bud
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia
edition =
year = 2003
publisher = Sports Media Pub.
isbn = 0-973-14434-3

ee also

References

External links

* [http://www.budcollinstennis.com/ The Official Web Site of Bud Collins]
* [http://www.tennisfame.com/famer.aspx?pgID=867&hof_id=77 International Tennis Hall of Fame profile]
* [http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/bud_collins.htm] 2001 interview with Collins