Biography of Bud Collins

From printed page to broadcast booth, he is identified with the sport he has done much to popularize, yet to protect for the purists. "He is to tennis what pasta is to Italy," was a line in a "Sports Illustrated" profile. Born June 17, 1929, in Lima, Ohio, he grew up in Berea (outside of Cleveland) about 50 yards from the dirt tennis courts of Baldwin-Wallace College, from which he graduated in 1951, and where his father had been head coach of football, basketball, baseball and track, as well as athletic director. He moved east after U.S. Army service in 1954 to attend Boston University graduate school, then joined the "Boston Herald" as a sportswriter. In 1963, the year he shifted to the "Boston Globe", Collins first did television commentary (covering the U.S. Doubles at Longwood Cricket Club) for Boston's PBS outlet, WGBH, a station that for the next 20 years, with Greg Harney as producer, would pioneer American coverage of the sport.
He worked the U.S. Open for CBS (1968-72), signed on with NBC in 1972 (thereafter closely identified with that network's presentation of Wimbledon and the French), becoming the point man for all the dualists-print-television journalists--to follow. At the "Globe" his columns on sport, travel, and a variety of other subjects, including coverage of the Vietnam War are a continuing delight. His prose and commentary-style are as multi-hued as Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Seldom one to take himself or sports too seriously, he brightens reports with nicknames as colorful as his rainbow neckties and trousers, occasionally with flights of fancy. However, he can be absolutely authentic, a meticulous curator of the game's annals, passionate keeper of the flame.

He also writes for magazines and newspapers across the world such as the "Independent" in London, and the "Age" in Melbourne. His books include "The Education of a Tennis Player" (with Rod Laver, 1971), "Evonne! On the Move" (with Evonne Goolagong, 1974) a memoir, "My Life With the Pros" (1989) and three editions of this encyclopedia.

Although he refers to himself--and everyone else who plays below the level of the pros--as a "hacker," Collins is an accomplished now-and-again player, known for his touch, tactical cunning and preference for playing barefoot on grass courts. He won the U.S. Indoor mixed doubles (with Top Tenner Janet Hopps) in 1961, and was a finalist in the French Senior doubles (with Jack Crawford) in 1975. Engaging and irrepressible, he has even coached tennis, the Brandeis University varsity 1959-63, whose "name" player was future hippie icon Abbie Hoffman.

Befriending generations of journalists and tennis fans, Bud has been, in the words of that "Sports Illustrated" piece: "the hackers' delegate in the Chambers of Aces." He entered the Hall of Fame in 1994.