Legendary writer and TV personality Bud Collins (’09) dead at 86

Arthur Worth "Bud" Collins Jr. ('09) — prolific writer, groundbreaking television personality, eclectic dresser and the authority on professional tennis — died at his home in Brookline, MA, on March 4. He was 86.

From 1972 to 2007, Collins became a tennis fixture on NBC with its "Breakfast at Wimbledon" broadcasts. He earned notoriety for his sharp wit, keen analysis, good humor... and his bold choice of dress, often donning colorful bowties and garish custom-made pants. He was also a columnist and writer for the Boston Globe, covering baseball, boxing and tennis among other assignments.

From the obituary in the Boston Globe: “Few people have had the historical significance, the lasting impact, and the unqualified love for tennis as Bud Collins,” tennis legend Billie Jean King tweeted. “He was an outstanding journalist, an entertaining broadcaster, and as our historian he never let us forget or take for granted the rich history of our sport."

Collins, like some of the athletes he would write about over the years, went pro early. He left BU a few credits shy of a master's degree to take a job at the Boston Herald. Decades later, COM Dean Tom Fiedler investigated the academic record and helped to correct it.

"I had the privilege and the delight to present Bud with his MS in Communication in 2009, some 54 years after he had dropped out of COM just two credits shy of earning that degree," Fielder recalled. "Those missing two credits were to have been for Bud’s master’s thesis, which he didn’t finish at the time because the Boston Herald had offered him a full-time job as a sports writer. But many times over the intervening years – including when he spoke at BU as he donated his papers to the Gotlieb Archive -- he said he regretted not finishing the program because he had promised his mother that he would and she had died with that promise unfilled."

"I was in the audience that day," Fiedler continued. "When I got back to my office I asked the BU registrar if he could send me a copy of Bud’s transcript, which is where I saw that the only thing between Bud and his degree was a master’s thesis. So I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a copy of his classic book, Bud Collins’ Tennis Encyclopedia, which is the bible of the sport and some 700 pages long. I sent the book to the former University Provost along with Bud’s transcript and I proposed that COM be allowed to accept that book as Bud’s master’s thesis despite the years that had passed. The Provost agreed and I recorded this on Bud’s transcript, thus enabling him to successfully complete the requirements for the MS. We held a special “hooding” ceremony for him in the COM lounge, which was attended by his family, friends and many local sports writers. We honored him further with the Distinguished Alumnus Award later that year. Bud said that he would from that point on regard me as his 'godmother' because I had enabled him to fulfill his promise to his mother. I’ve never felt so honored.”