BUD COLLINS, who for many years as a newspaper columnist and TV commentator provided tennis "with its most authoritative voice," died Friday at his Brookline, Mass., home at the age of 86, according to Bryan Marquard of the BOSTON GLOBE. Although Collins traveled to N.Y. in September for the U.S. Open, "when the media center was dedicated and named in his honor, his health had been failing the past couple of years." The N.Y. Daily News' MIKE LUPICA said, "No media figure in history in my mind has ever been as important to one sport as Bud Collins was to the sport of tennis. You can't minimize it. He became the de facto ambassador to that sport as it was exploding in this country. He educated. He entertained." Collins in '63 began "offering tennis commentary" for Boston's WGBH-TV, "not long after he became a Globe columnist." His "longest and most visible venue" was at NBC from '72-'07, "notably with the 'Breakfast at Wimbledon' broadcasts." Collins over the years "appeared regularly on ESPN, the Tennis Channel, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation." His "bow-tied presence" on camera is "credited with enlivening the appeal of tennis as it rose to TV-viewing prominence." The Globe's DAN SHAUGHNESSY said, "He broke the barrier, the notion that you could be a newspaper guy and they would want you on TV" (BOSTONGLOBE.com, 3/4). SportsBusiness Journal's Daniel Kaplan tweeted, "So sad to hear of Bud Collins passing. what a wonderful man and writer. Also, a founding contributor to SportsBusiness Journal. RIP Bud."
Also see many of the original monthly columns written by Collins in the early days of SportsBusiness Journal.
