BONUS - Tennis Re-Lived: Bud Collins

32:05He began his journalistic tennis exploits in earnest upon joining the Boston Globe in 1963, which really feels like where the train really set in motion for Bud. He would remain the cornerstone of their tennis coverage for many, many years. In his memoir, Bud explains the status of tennis in the early 1950s, Except for the pros, he said, who played public arenas, usually to small gatherings. The game in 1954 happened mostly behind doors, where the general public didn't stray in person or in thought. Tennis had fallen behind the sporting times, conducted in a vacuum at the uppermost tournament level, except for Wimbledon, Forest Hills and a few other events.

32:50It was not really in vogue at any level. A secret sport. There were some of us who were fans too, who subscribed to world tennis to follow the upper crust of players along the world circuit. At times, the game seemed to be played only on those pages, in the photos and small print of the results across the globe gathered assiduously by the editor-publisher Gladys Heldman. There wasn't much mention of it elsewhere, no television except for an hour or two with the Nationals at Forest Hills each September. And then he goes on to describe getting assigned tennis by his boss, Ed Costello, for the first time, assigned to work on tennis for the first time while working at the Boston Herald.

33:35Ed said to me, well, as the new man, there are certain things you have to do that nobody likes to do, but sometimes they have to be done. I promise it won't happen often. I'd like you to go out to Longwood for some women's tennis. He treated the words women's tennis as though he were an ayatollah considering women's rights. Longwood women's tennis, I interrupted him. He misinterpreted my interruption and scowled. I don't like a new man to question an assignment. It's just something I have to ask you to do. We cover it because of Hazel. Hazel? Hazel Whiteman. I don't know if you know anything about tennis, but she'll tell you everything you need.

34:18It won't be too bad. Bad? Hell. I thought he was doing me a favour. That's why I'd abruptly interrupted him. I was pleased. To me, Longwood Cricket Club was one of those magnetic names out of World Tennis Magazine. I knew the first Davis Cup match had been played there and it was a layover on the international tour. The boss didn't realise he had a degenerate on his hands. In pointing me toward Longwood, a fountainhead of the game, with genuine living, growing grass courts, he was sending a pineapple addict to Hawaii, a country music freak to Nashville, a Western films buff to interview John Wayne.

34:58I don't mind, sir, I responded. I've heard of Longwood. We'll just want scores and a couple of graphs. Say hello to Hazel for me. Days later, the boss was annoyed when he received a couple of phone calls thanking him for supplying a reporter who seemed interested. Fellow from Longwood called to ask if I'd send you out again to cover the New England Juniors, he frowned. Don't get the idea that we cover tennis on a regular basis, though, Junior. There isn't that kind of interest.

35:33That's amazing. and i thought it was really important to include that context of like where tennis was you know at the outset of bud's career and he's got some very interesting theories in the book on kind of why tennis wasn't a major sport in that time you know i think a lot of it would point to uh bill tilden who was kind of like the guy in the 1920s but then and kind of had some scandals and was imprisoned. And it was hard for tennis to sort of latch on to him as a sort of figurehead in the way that golf had Arnold Palmer at the time. And golf was kind of the sport of the presidents, you know, and like Eisenhower would play golf.

36:17And tennis was just sort of in the shadows relatively. And Bud couldn't understand it. Like Bud couldn't understand why tennis wasn't loved by everyone. You know, we've heard how much he loved it. And yeah, he kind of set about on his career to make people understand the nuances of tennis and why it was fun and why people should be loving it. And that's kind of what he would do throughout his career. Yeah, you kind of see it, don't you, with other sports now trying to find a way to get some traction to be noticed. and to think that a couple of hours of what is now the US Open were getting shown on TV.

37:00A year, that's it. It's pretty hard to fathom, really. And I mean, that was Bud's writing career starting. In 1963, he made his debut as a tennis commentator on PBS at the US National Doubles Championships, which was held at his beloved Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. And he would do some of his finest work for PBS, especially in the 1970s alongside Donald Dell, who was not only a commentator, he was a coach, he was an agent, he was Mr. Conflicts of Interest. But goodness me, he got things done. And you'll hear about some of the things he got done a little bit later in this show.

37:45So from 1968 until 72, Collins was a stellar play-by-play announcer on tennis telecasts for CBS at the US Open before commencing a 35-year stint for NBC at Wimbledon, which is where you've heard all those interviews from. The International Tennis Hall of Fame wrote, For 35 years, breakfast at Wimbledon included strawberries and cream, world-class tennis and Bud Collins. After 2007, he did continue broadcasting and covering tennis for ESPN and for Tennis Channel. And the writer Steve Tigner in Tennis Magazine and for Tennis.com, he wrote, If there was a crucial event in the sport's modern history, Bud was there.

38:36The first important men's pro tournament at Longwood Cricket Club in 1963, Bud helped get it financed. The Newport event in 1965 where Jimmy Van Allen introduced the tiebreaker. Bud had a front row seat. The first Open tournament at Bournemouth in 1968. Collins crossed the pond to cover it. The first CBS broadcast from the US Open and the first breakfast at Wimbledon broadcast for NBC. Bud was in the booth for both. The advent of WCT, Virginia Slims, World Team Tennis, Flushing Meadows and even Andre Agassi's hair. Bud gives us first-person accounts of them all. At a certain point, you start to wonder whether the history of tennis is really just the history of what Bud Collins saw.

39:22Today we call Steffi Graf Froylein Forehand, Billie Jean King Mother Freedom, and a shot that's hit high in the air is a moon ball, without bothering to acknowledge that Collins came up with all of them. now later in the show we'll hear some more from bud's memoir and frankly i can't get enough so that's fine by me um but i mean he also authored a lot of books the education of a tennis player with rod laver in 1971 yvonne on the move with yvonne goulagong in 1974 and several updated versions of Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia. In 2015, while he attended his 61st US Open, the Media Centre was named after him.

40:09That's what Catherine was referring to. I was there as well. It was a day when every journalist I know, and many more beyond, loads and loads of famous players, past and present, were there that day to commemorate the fact that the Media Centre was going to be named after Bud Collins. And the inscription on the plaque reads to this day, journalist, commentator, historian, mentor, friend. He died in March, March the 4th, 2016, aged 86. His wife, the photographer Anita Ruthling-Clausen, said that Collins died at home in Brookline, Massachusetts, after suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia.

40:54Rod Laver and Stan Smith, were ushers at his memorial service in Boston. And I think that tells you just how he was regarded.

41:09I'm remembering now, David, I think you must have tipped me off and told me to come to, if I could, to come to that ceremony in the US Open Media Centre. because I remember standing with you there. And look, I wish I had the context that I have now for it at the time, but I'm at least grateful in retrospect that I was there. Yeah. And that's the framework of Bud's life and his lifelong love affair with tennis. And we're going to hear now from two great friends of his and colleagues of his who are going to give some vivid, vivid colour to that framework to really bring Bud to life in the way that he deserves.

42:14We're going to hear from Mary Carrillo and first from Mike Lupica, as I say, an author of 21 New York Times bestsellers and a longtime New York Daily News columnist and a man that clearly just loved Bud Collins. And that bursts through in this conversation that he had with David.

42:52the first thing I want to ask you Mike is your message to me you said last night no media figure has been more important to a sport than Bud Collins was to the sport of tennis explain that to me well I believe it with all my heart because when the tennis boom at least in the United States, happened in the 1970s. I tell people this all the time. The tennis boom in so many ways was Jimmy Connors and everything that happened after him. But somebody had to be our host. And Bud was that host. And he didn't just entertain. He educated as well. And he made people understand the beauty and the greatness of this sport.

43:41Me against you, that little distance between us and everything that would happen across two hours or three hours or five hours and and it it had to be bud because more than anything people love bud and so he he not only commanded their attention but these all these great matches to follow they got to do watching him on television what what i got to do my whole life which is to sit next to this man and it's like he took everybody by the hand or maybe by the front of their shirt and said, you come with me, okay? Maybe you haven't watched this sport and loved it the way I have going back to the 1950s or whenever.

44:24He said, but trust me, it's gonna be great. And there have been other figures in other sports. There have been great baseball writers and great football writers. You know, my dear friend Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe was one of the great basketball writers of all time. but they basketball and football and baseball they didn't need those guys as badly as as tennis did and and uh um i i remember a great line when when winston churchill was dying the great jimmy breslin went over to england and wrote columns about him and he quoted somebody standing outside his residence and saying he was there when we needed him bud was there when tennis needed him wow what was his superpower like what why was he so important well first of all he he knew the sport inside and out and and david you you're well aware that the greatest lie of all time was that he was a hacker he was not a hacker um he he had won the national indoor mix double i think in 59 or 60 i I forget what year it was.

45:29And so he understood the game. He had a feel for the game. I was his partner in the ad court for years and years, and I was nearly the player that he is. I'm the hacker, okay? One time I said to him, but how come I don't get to play the deuce court ever? And he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, Michael, we need to win the first point. And so I never had to ask him again. And I have to tell you this. I'm going to digress more than once because I have the attention span of a hummingbird when talking about Bud Collins. It was as much fun to play tennis with him as to watch him talk about it on television or read him writing about it.

46:21OK, we there was a year when Bud found out that I think it was called the Wimbledon Cricket Club across the street from the All England. And we joined and became members for like 10 pounds a year. It's like ridiculous. So when we we'd always go out to Wimbledon together in the morning. So we started going out earlier so we could play some grass court tennis. And, you know, most of our – we did well over there, David, but I think that a lot of our opponents were elderly women between like 80 and dead. Okay, so we looked good over there, okay? And being Bud, he made us get club ties and put us on the mailing list.

47:02But one day we're playing, and Bud, who was endlessly cheerful on the court the way he was everywhere else, comes up on this midcourt on this short backhand, and he dunks it into the net. And he puts his racket on the ground and he says, shit, and I'd never seen him get that mad. And I said, bud, what's the matter? He said, Michael, I came up on that ball and I was about to hit a topspin backhand until at the very last second I remembered, I don't have a topspin backhand. And so that was what it was like to play tennis. But again, love of the game, knowledge of the game. But even that, David, that wouldn't have meant anything if he wasn't the communicator that he was.

47:52I mean, he was a beautiful writer. He was as funny and knowing in print as he was on television. I mean, even now I can remember leads that he wrote. Because we sat next to each other in the press room at Wimbledon. Billie Jean is very funny about she'd sneak up there after she finished playing and watch and she does this imitation she talked about it at Bud's memorial service of us on our old manual typewriters typing talking typing talking she was amazed that actually stories ever got written uh but but they did and you know one time Rolf Thung had uh a big match there and Bud's lead was what sort of thing is a thug okay and and the last day i ever spent with bud sitting in the uh royal box at the united not royal box the president's box um um no they'd shoot me if i ever tried to get near the royal box at wimbledon but he we he he was failing by then it was a miracle that he made it for the ceremony to in the naming of the tennis center and that day like it was like out of a movie.

49:00Rolf Thung was there. And I introduced myself and I said, you know, I'm sitting outside with Bud Collins. And he looked at me and he said, what sort of thing is a thung? So everybody, everybody knew about Bud and everybody loved Bud. And he had an access to players that I'm not sure, maybe mary has it now i'm not sure anybody has had that kind of access ever again because in addition to everything else play as much as the viewer and the reader could trust bud the players could trust bud and and it's it's why that relationship was the foundation of everything he did in the media it's a rare gift isn't it to be oh god oh to be able to be trusted by players but also be genuine and legitimate in the eyes of the viewer you know to not just be a player's friend to to be somebody who well you know is i guess prepared to criticize it or or at least speak honestly about it which which in all of our research is is clear that he was and i'll tell you something else he no one has ever been better and more gentle and graceful than Bud when he would have to stand there just outside Senate Court and interview the loser as well as the winner.

50:27You know, I mean, you know, the famous moment where Chris looked down and said, nice pants, Bud. And it just broke the ice of what could have been an awkward moment. He was so good at that. And it was just another. And the other thing is, we talk about readers and viewers, when they would meet Bud, he would make them feel as if they were the most important person in the world. We'd be walking across the Open, and we'd be walking across Wimbledon, and somebody would stop and say, hey, Bud, and da-da-da-da-da, and he'd say, hey, Charlie, and after the conversation, I'd say, who was that guy? He said, I met him like five years ago at the Open.

51:09and he remembered he remembered the guy he and i can't remember anybody's name and and bud unfailingly what was was gracious and welcoming in in those moments and and it was it was completely authentic oh it's so nice to hear and and i mean you you said you you sat next to him I mean, I can feel the kind of love you had for him. Oh, my God. David, I met him before I met him. I was working nights at the Boston Globe when I was in college. And I became the guy late at night who would take dictation from Bud from some far corner of the tennis universe. And, you know, I kind of, you know, I mean, Mary doesn't think so, but no, I have a decent sense of humor.

52:06I mean, and so we hit it off. We hit it off and he said, kid, we got to meet when I come back and we have lunch. And then he started taking me to tennis tournaments. He started taking me to events. He got me to go to Wimbledon for the first time. And Big Buddy had some sort of side hustle. So all of a sudden I'm flying first class to London one night on TWA and I said, how'd you do this? He said, don't worry about it. But he gave me one piece of advice that stuck with me my entire career. Whether I was walking into a press conference or a room filled with players or center court at Wimbledon or the old stadium at Forest Hills, he said, kid, always act like you belong.

52:49And I never felt that. He said, I know you're 21 or wherever you are. I said, just act like you belong. And it almost empowered me, even though I didn't belong, to act like I did. And, no, he literally, that first Wimbledon, he literally took me by the hand and walked me through the gates of the All England Club. And as I said to you in our exchange the other day, there was no tougher guy ever at Wimbledon than Roy McKelvey, the old legendary press officer. and by the end of my first week, filing pieces, by the way, for the Boston Phoenix, which is like the village voice of Boston and the old Washington star, I had a Press A badge because of Bud, which I lost the first day.

53:44I dropped it the first day I had it and all of a sudden I get a message from Roy McKelvey, please see me in my office. And I thought, oh God, I'm going to be deported because I realized I didn't have it by then. I walk in, he's holding my A badge. And he said, never lose this ever again, Mr. Lupica. And all of a sudden I look over my shoulder and Bud's there. He goes, goes double for me, kid. And you know what we all did? McKelvey poured us all a glass of scotch. And we drank it, we toasted and drank it. And from that day on, I felt like I was a made man at Wimbledon. And I still go back from time to time.

54:27And I never go back without writing at least one column while I'm there. They were there last summer I went. And it was 50 years, 50 years after I first walked through those gates. And they knew that there. And they couldn't have been nicer. And I was just thinking how happy Bud would be to know that I was still there and kind of still hacking away. he he's changed it seems to me i mean i was reading about how he's changed or influenced the vernacular uh of the sport the way the way we talk about it there are phrases that we use to describe shots and and and and people you know nicknames and all these things that we just use in normal parlance now but he he was the one who coined them he's he's the one who came up with them and i just i just wonder sort of how how you feel maybe that he he's responsible for what we what we know now as kind of tennis coverage.

55:24Yeah, because here's the thing. People thought, and it's one of the things that Jimmy changed back in the day, but people had this idea that it was an all-white country club, we're better than you are sport. And it's almost like Bud, you know, Bud dragged it back out to the public courts and made it available. He made it available. He said, it's not that serious. Okay. We can have fun. Ken Rosewall could be the doomsday stroking machine and Jimmy and Chris could be the lovebird double and, you know, and princess America and, and, and all of that stuff, uh, that, that somehow, again, I, I keep going back to this made everybody feel that they had what I had for all those years with Bud, which was the best seat in the house.

56:16Okay, so this is when I was a kid, you know, there's a little mini burger running around Forest Hills. You know, the US Open used to be played on grass and all of the, not only were all the courts on grass, but all the pathways on the courts were on grass. So, you know, little kids like me, we would, we would go to the back of a court and lie on our bellies and watch the matches on the grass, you know, and I saw Bud, and I couldn't get into the main court, so that's where I was, and all of a sudden, I saw Bud Collins running to another outside court, and you got to know, David, Bud was as famous to me as any player.

56:59I mean, he was the soundtrack of my childhood watching tennis, so I ran after him. I wanted to see where he was going, and what he, what, what, Was there an upset going on? Was it the end of a big... And that was the first time I was in his presence, and I just watched him. And of course, other people recognized him, and he was so nice and generous with everybody, but he wanted to make sure he saw the end of that match. So that's who Bud was for Americans back then. And he had to... I mean, in the early days of PBS television, I mean, he had to explain tennis. tennis. He had to explain scoring.

57:38He had to give players goofy nicknames so that people would recognize them. And remember, that's the Lithuanian Lion. That's the Bash Brasher from Belleville. It annoyed some people, but even I as a little kid knew what he was doing. right? So the next time I met him, I was a player at Hilton Head. And he, you know, he didn't know who I was, but I was hanging around people who he did know. So he asked me my name. And then months later at the French Open, he remembered it. He was really good at that, wasn't he? So I was hanging around. He had not yet met John McEnroe. John was playing in the juniors.

58:25This is 77. John had not yet made Douglaston. He had not put Douglaston, where I'm from too, on the map. So a bunch of my friends, three of my friends were backpacking across Europe. So it was those three and John and me. And so Bud says, hi, Mary. And I said, hey, this is John McEnroe and this is Goat Muller and this is, you know, and we're all from Douglaston. And he said, so which one of you is the mayor?

58:58Anyway, but that's what he was like. We all wanted to just follow him around. And then, of course, I mean, I got to work with him. And I learned so much. And I also learned that you could be, I mean, he was so smart. And he had these marble notebooks. books and he loved women's tennis and he was so good to women. He would give them as much ink and as much airtime as he could. Was that unusual in the time? I mean, did he stand out in that regard? I think he did. I think, but I mean, there were others, Frank DeFord, the late great Frank DeFord. He was part of our posse. He, again, Billie Jean King was such an important an American at the time, you know, when I was around.

59:46So everyone wanted to cover her. And so that was, that was a big deal. But no, Bud loved, I mean, he loved tennis. He played it well, you know, he played it barefoot. He just, he would, he would have these tournaments, he would, you know, the media tournaments, and he would be in charge and he would, you know, decide who's playing doubles with each other. And, you know, I mean, it was like, it was such a great group of journalists and TV people at the time. You just wanted to be part of his sphere, because you knew you were going to laugh, you were going to smile, and he was going to make you feel like you were a real part of the scene.

1:00:29And again, I think, and I started using marble notebooks. That's what I to this day, I mean, when I should be off of them by now and onto laptops. But, you know, I would be in the booth with him and he would keep his own scores and keep his own stats. And, you know, this is the days where you didn't have all this information coming to you immediately, all this data and all these stats. And Bud did his own. And he would, you know, if you were at a tournament with Bud, he made it bigger. He made it feel bigger. Bud Collins is there, you know? And he would do this, David, he would put you somewhere where you weren't, like McEnroe would be playing a match somewhere where I wasn't.

1:01:17And he'd say, oh, I see Mary Carrillo in the stands. And I'd be like, no, I'm at home. He once did a thing. He had met my mom, Terry Carrillo, and he was at a tournament where my mother certainly was not, and somebody bounced a smash into the stands. So Bud said, oh, will you look at that? Caught one-handed by Terry Carrillo, and she didn't spill a drop of beer. And my mom said, I do not drink beer. Like, that's the part that pissed her off. I tell you, this is the classic. Bud and I were doing the Olympics, the Atlanta Olympics, 96. And they were giving us very little air time because all this other stuff was going on.

1:02:08And, you know, there had been a bombing and all this crazy stuff. So tennis, we would just, he had this little notebook that he kept. And he kept how many seconds we were on every day. Because they would barely show matches. But we do updates, quick updates. 49 seconds. Anyway, and fortunately for us, Lindsay Davenport, you know, an American, won the singles, so we showed that. And Andre Agassi was playing Sergi Bruguera in the final, so we showed that. And I knew Bud's, how he used to just throw names, you know, into the pot. So I had gotten tickets for Howie Gutman, a very good friend, and his son.

1:02:53And I just said to Bud before the finals start, I said, can you do me a favor? Can you throw Howie Gutman into your mix? So the very first game, go back and watch our coverage of Agassi Bruguera. The very first game, somebody missed a call. And Bud said, oh boy, Howie Gutman really missed that one. that was wide by then

1:03:22was he like that off air I mean like he comes across even if you watch old footage he's larger than life he's got these catchphrases he's got these nicknames he's kind of coining phrases that well we use today and we don't even know we're using them because of him that's the thing that comes across to me and it was all fun and so forth That's how it came across. But was that just his personality coming across on air or was or was that, you know, there's a lot of research behind it in order to have the foundations. And is there even a bit of choreography about who he's creating as his on on air persona?

1:04:05Yeah, I mean, on air, obviously, he went big. He swung for the fences, as we say in baseball. He was quieter off air, certainly, and especially as he got older, it was harder and harder for him to keep up with things. His wife, Anita, certainly helped him around and helped him write his last tennis book. He was quieter, but he was still, I liked him even more off air, you know, when he He wasn't trying to spitball different names. And he had been around. He didn't just cover tennis. He traveled with Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali. And he had a travel column that he wrote to. And he was, I mean, obviously, he was so interested in so many things.

1:04:57He knew Russian history. If there was a Russian player out there. And he would tell you stories of his own. And he would go places that I... Actually, this happened on air. We were calling a match, and it was a big upset. It was at the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden. And I said something like, wow, you know, this upset is as big as... And I threw out some upset. And Bud said, and Vietnam over the USA. he said that on air like wow are you allowed to do that one thing to do at dinner but he said it on air especially when Bud died he had influenced me so much I loved his I loved his storytelling and I loved that he could be that playful you know and say things that meant something I wanted to be even more like that after he was gone.

1:06:01Because it's a sound. He made a sound. He was willing to go places that I had never heard anyone else go to. But especially off the air, having dinner with him, he was like that too. And I think he was just very... He loved the sport and he loved that it took him around the world. I mean, he really wanted to see planet Earth, every bit of it. and he was an explorer in those ways. You could tell he wanted to do stuff. I think it was after one of the big tournaments, he was going to a monastery for a week. He just wanted to completely... And Anita. I don't think it was his idea. I think Anita wanted to do it, but he went along.

1:06:53He knew, I think, when he needed to be quiet you know and go inward you know not just give it all out you talk about how he influenced you um one of the things that has struck me since the last decade of knowing you and going to tournaments with you is you will come in press conference you conferences you will ask questions you're you're friends with all the journalists they know who you are there's a rapport and i always remember from buds that he he had a place i mean obviously he was a writer himself for the the Boston Globe. He was a journalist himself, but he was always in the press room.

1:07:29He was always in the press conferences, you know, despite this big name TV personality that he had, there was a real journalist there. And is that something that you picked up on and kind of wanted for yourself in your role? Very much so. I wanted to sit next to him in press conferences because he asked, he could ask very interesting questions, you know, he'd get right to the heart of something and he wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid that he'd be blown off or somebody would be pissed at him, especially the Americans. I think, you know, what happened, David, is like, once Europeans started dominating the tour, like they didn't, you know, young players, they didn't necessarily know who Bud was.

1:08:15And that hurt me, you know, like this guy, I know he's got these goofy pants on, but, you know, this guy's our guy, you know. And so he had to work extra hard because he wanted the players to know him, you know. So, yeah, he would go to press conference. Or else we were doing a – we were just alone talking to a player who we were going to cover the next night. And Bud – and it was a young player. I forget who it was. But Bud said, what high school do you go to, you know? and the player, and I'm thinking, who the hell cares? And it was St. Aloysius or whatever. And as she was winning the match the next day, the pride of St.

1:08:58Aloysius, you know? I'm there, oh, that's why you asked that question. That's why, you know? He did things like that, you know, the detail and the curiosity, you know? He really wanted to know why you play the game and what your influences were. He really, he was a joy. I mean, Bud made you love, made you so happy that you were watching a tennis match. He's just like, this is a gift. This is, you know, look at our lives. Like, what a great scam we got going. I mean, that was kind of the subtext, which I've always believed to be true. um takes him doing to to kind of be one of the media and yet be as in with the players as he was as accepted by the players i mean so often i will hear players kind of only want to hear from each other you know about the sport and that wasn't the case that i saw with bud you know even even even in press conferences.

1:10:11I mean, I did attend those press conferences, and especially when it was sort of Pete Sampras' era. And, you know, you could tell that if Bud was asking them a question, they would just sit up in their chair a bit more, you know, and they'd talk to him by first names. You know, there was a respect there. There was an interest. They were interested. They were interested. What's he going to ask, you know? And that's what came across to me. How did he pull that off? to that he because uh especially players of that vintage you know um if bud asks you a question it was an honor it was an honor to answer him like you know bud was the man bud was and i everybody knew how bud covered tennis you know they knew how fair-minded he was and they They knew how much he loved the game and how much he respected the players.

1:11:07So I think there was a lot of that. I mean, again, when he remembered my name, it was one of the great days of my life. You know what I mean? Like, why did you remember my name? You know, I'm nobody. So when the young players like Pete or Jim Currier or Agatha, like all that, and even before then, I mean, Jimmy Connors and McEnroe and, again, Martine and Chrissy, there was such a respect level. And again, he was the guy. He was our guy for a very long time, for a very long time. He never lost his, you know, he lost his step, obviously. towards the end he really was it was hard to it was hard for him to get around you know so Anita became his legs in large measure and he was the last guy I forgot he was the last guy in the press room who used a typewriter this big ass like huge typewriter like he was not yet ready to get into and I just loved it because I love the click clack of a typewriter anyway you know but you would watch him and what he could do which i don't know how the hell he pulled this off david but he would be as he was calling a match he'd be writing his column he'd like how the hell are you doing that and and sometimes he had to because you know he was on deadline or something and but he could he could do that it was really something that was really it's also something that he could sort of slightly make things up on air to kind of to kind of entertain and get away with that as well you know i mean some people would say no and you've got to tell the truth you've got but but he it it worked for him didn't it yes he could have a very rubbery attitude about about the truth and sometimes he was only playing to an audience of one or two.

1:13:19Like the Howie Gutman, bad call by Howie Gutman. That was, he did that strictly for me. You know what I mean? I'll tell you one story. I'm not sure if it's going to make your podcast, but it was the first year that John McEnroe was working for NBC covering the French Open. So it was Dick Enberg and Bud Collins and John McEnroe in the middle of them. And it wasn't a great match. It was Peter Korda getting just slapped around by Jim Currier. Oh, yeah. Was it Currier? French Open final. French Open final, yeah. 92, I think. Yeah, and so the match was going bad. And when a match goes south, you really start pulling stuff out of your keister, don't you?

1:14:06So they go into a commercial break. the late great Leo Levin one of my best friends he was a statistician for this he told me this story because obviously I wasn't in the booth but it got to the point where the match was so brutal that they throw it to a commercial and then Dick Enberg says to John look like do you know anything about his coach like can we Vladimir Zednik like they were trying to find something to talk about and John said well the only thing the only thing I knew about him everybody said he had the biggest dick in the locker room okay so great information but you know what do you do about it you know how can you fold that into the story so they come at a commercial and Bud there's a shot now of Vladimir Zednik you know the director gives him a tight shot and Bud says Bud says they call him the big stick.

1:15:12He just sat there. And John and Dick are like, what the fuck? And there's a very pregnant pause until Bud says, because he had a very big serve. Okay, now Damon. So Bud Collins told that joke to two people on national television. you follow me what I'm saying, David. I follow you.

1:15:47It's amazing. Oh, yeah. That was my guy. That was my guy. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Oh, you're going to have a fun time telling this story. Who would have been his kind of tennis player to watch? Do you remember him having favorites? Oh, I mean, yeah. I mean, he loved Billie Jean King, obviously. He loved everything about Billie. You know, Billie would... You open up your notebook and Billie Jean's going to fill your pages for you. So he loved Billie. He loved Rosie. Oh, my God, he loved Rosie. Rosie Casals. Rosie Casals. And Rosie was... I don't blame him. Rosie was a lot of fun. Who else did he like? He loved Pete.

1:16:32He loved Pete Sampras. you know he really admired Pete's game and Pete's his comportment you know I think he really uh had affection for that and you know yeah I think he obviously he liked the guys who made calling matches easy you know Jimmy Connors and John and and all those guys he loved Federer obviously he had everyone loved Raj right um but he liked uh he liked players with creativity you know he liked players with a real imagination and and i think that's what he was you know he loved drop shots he loved let chords for some reason neck cord like okay neck cords happen you know like but he would scream it out like it was like you know oh my god neck cord i love that we were whenever we were watching a lot of matches you know and that's such a feature of them i know I know he just thought that was a really big deal you know I never really looked at them that way but if a ball hit a net it injected some drama something into the point though the way he would say that no question no question and and again that's what he would do like during a a dull match he'd really start you know coming I I tend to do the same thing um ah he was he was a joy he really was and he he lived with that kind of a joy i think you know he liked that was that was his one of his superpowers really wasn't it that he he knew he knew he'd got it good and he was making the most of it that's exactly right that's exactly right which uh i think we're trying to do our very best between us to do the same that's the trick I mean that is a superpower and that is what I think you always have to remember like wow this is you know not a bad ride on this spinning planet to really enjoy what you're doing with people you like doing it with well I've enjoyed this thank you as always Mary anytime say hi to the squad for me hi Mary what a brought a couple of contributions to the show.

1:18:52Yeah, big moment for Vladimir Zednik.

1:18:59I reckon potentially speaking speaking beyond my brief here I reckon Bud would have been with me on my campaign to get rid of let's service let's. Imagine how thrilled and excited he'd have been by playing net chords on serves. What a thrill. You might be onto something there. Yeah, I kind of want him to do it just so that we can bring Bud back in commentary and just do that. Just net chord! It'd be great. It's as Matt was saying at the start that hearing Bud Collins Yelp Netcord is so pandemic coded for me it's so summer 2020 and yet it's not triggering or traumatic it's like the fondest the fondest evocation of something something really special yeah incredible and so many like lessons in there for us I think you know like I want to be the fun desk I think we do a good job of that Matt I think so you know like we have a great time on site depends a bit on how Fulham are performing but but just like that balancing act of sort of wide eyed wonder and love for it when you're there but also journalistic integrity and asking the right questions and the hard questions like that just seems like he he had that like better than maybe anyone ever and obviously like mary has carried that on as well and like we we look to mary now when we're on site but you know i just think that's a real like lesson for us uh to always keep that in mind i think I think we regard the day that we realised Mary knew who we were the same as she regards the day that Bud Collins made it clear he knew who she was.

1:21:20Yeah, I remember exactly where I was the first time Mary spoke to me. And I remember this text I sent to you, David. I know. I had to leave a meeting to take it in.

1:21:37Oh, OK, let's continue. Let's continue adding colour or trying to add colour to the Bud Collins story with some extracts, Matt, from my life with the prose, which shows off Bud's writing. and also allows us to view some interesting topics and moments from tennis history through Bud's lens, which is an incredible thing. Yeah, that's it. That's what I wanted to do here. And I haven't picked out maybe like the most obvious events, you know, over Bud's years, but I've just picked three, like one each that we're going to read that just yeah sort of paint a picture bud's experience of whether it be a tournament or a moment or in this case for me like the arrival of a player and i've chosen um chris evatt's arrival on the scene at the us open in 1971 and also a disastrous first TV interview that Bud conducted with Chrissy.

1:22:50So Bud writes, Ponytailed and prim. Although a delinquent cutting high school classes, the 16-year-old from Fort Lauderdale swooshed into the Forest Hills Stadium like a Florida hurricane. During her seven-year run there, before the Open moved to Flushing Meadows, she played nowhere else but the 13 ,000-seat stadium because, as tournament director Bill Talbot explained, people would have torn down the fences if I tried to put her on any other court. Everybody wants to see Chrissie. Since she had helped the United States beat Britain in the Whiteman Cup and won two straight matches while approaching the Open, Chrissie was hardly an unheralded discovery.

1:23:35But millions did discover her in the second round, her TV debut. where our national romance with Chris America began. It was a grade A reworking of a Hollywood B thriller, an escape from sure defeat at the hands of fourth ranked American Mary Ann Eisel that has had no equal in Chrissy's long and brilliant career. At the TV microphone for CBS, I felt, along with everyone else, that the new kid had given a good account of herself in losing as Eisel served with a 6-4, 6-5, 40-love lead. Three match points. And after all, grass was Eisel's territory, while it seemed something of an enigma to volley disdaining baseline boomer Chrissie.

1:24:23Nice try, kid. However, the teeny kid began swinging from her heels, belting winners, and cancelled the three match points. Before the game was over, in her favour, Everett had blotted three more. Eisel was reeling and Chrissie was rolling, permitting her foe just one more game. 6-4, 7-6, 6-1. America was captivated. After she had showered and dressed, Chrissie was brought back to the TV platform for an interview. The day's show was over, but the producer wanted to tape something for use the following day. The TV broadcasting area was a small, rudimentary wooden platform, an outdoor perch at one corner of the stadium, dating back to the radio days.

1:25:08Announcers on the bridge just above the court had to speak softly. The stage manager positioned Chrissie in a chair facing me. Behind me, on that September afternoon in 1971, Pancho Gonzalez was having difficulty with Manolo Arantes. Not any more than I was having at the same time, trying to pry answers from Chris Evert. I've interviewed her often since. She's become a delight, the consummate pro, true to herself, her game, her public, as available to the press in defeat as in victory. She's also nailed me a few times verbally when the interviews have piqued her. Touché. But in her first nationwide TV interview, she was tight-lipped, nervous.

1:25:52As I calmly, then a little desperately, sought some hook of more than a yes or no answer, or merely a nod, I could sense that the stadium had become silent. Something was askew. Strange, since Gonzales always inspired fervour in a New York crowd. But I was more concerned with Chrissy, especially as a look of puzzlement, even terror, began to spread across her face. Her mouth was agape. Her eyes widened like a cartoon character's as she stared past me at the court. What had I said to unnerve her? Instinctively, I looked over my shoulder to find the answer. Pancho Gonzalez, directly below us, hands on hip and scowling.

1:26:33God damn it, bud, he bellowed. Don't you know we're trying to play a tennis match down here? Shut up! His words ripped across the arena as Chrissie and I jerked as if shot. Quickly, the audience seconded with, yeah, shut up, and thousands of personal versions of boo. What a reception the heroine of Forest Hills was getting, courtesy of me and CBS. I knew the interview was over. Thank you, Chrissie, and good luck, I whispered into the microphone, and then we slunk off the platform as though bailing out of a hotel without paying the bill.

1:27:13What a storyteller. Just brilliant.

1:27:19It's so great. we got another section here on the subject of his favourite city and tournament Rome which is really a sea of conflicts for him really I mean it was the one he loved the most but it's inequalities it's sexism bothered him enormously all the way through, and that will come through in this reading from his book. Rome is my favourite tennis town. If I am ever rationed to one tournament a year, make it the Italian Open, please. The English may have invented tennis, but the Italians humanised it. Possibly too much, and in ways that would scandalise the English creation called Wimbledon.

1:28:12Il Foro Italico was built in 1932 by a bombastic hacker with a suspect backhand, the dictator Mussolini. It's a gem of lush landscaping, marble tiers, sunken clay courts, gigantic statues and excitable patrons. Law and order doesn't please those of us experienced in Roman barbarism. There have been turbulent scenes, sometimes requiring police intervention. Such marvellous theatre. The Romans are naturally exuberant and boisterous and they seem to have more fun than any other tennis crowd, making their tournament the liveliest. Although the Italian Open isn't one of the four majors, it strives mightily to be regarded as number five, and it remains number one in my heart.

1:28:53As a refugee from New England in a claustrophobic winter of indoor tournaments, I stretched out in the forro, taking heart from the sunshine of May before May grows hot. The mood is relaxed. The ice cream is called gelato. It's a good way to break into the European swing prior to the bustle and mobs of Paris, where more often than not the weather is chilly and London, historically soggy. Smaller in area than the major sights, the Foro offers manageable spectating. There are places you can stand in the shade of those elegant pines, offering a vista of four different matches at once. Or you can wander off to the rear of the grounds and take a nap al fresco.

1:29:36Unfortunately, the organisers of the Italian Open, which accommodates a friendly eight or nine thousand at a sitting, have felt compelled to keep up with the financial race by recently installing floodlights. Night and day tennis, of course, doubles the profits. It's an abomination, agrees Gianni Clerici of La Repubblica, but necessary in this day to keep the tournament in the top six. Only with big money do the players take it seriously. When I was a player, Gianni wrote, everybody wanted to come to Rome because it is Rome, but we wanted to enjoy the life as much as the tennis. Life doesn't seem very important to players today, but they have to please the bloody computer and their bloody agents.

1:30:20But a chauvinistic feeling pervades Rome, Bud writes. The championship itself wasn't that satisfying a memory for Billie Jean King in 1970 or Chris Everett in 1975. It was the disrespect involved. Not only did they have to get up too early to play ungodly 10.30am finals, but the hour guaranteed that they would be watched by only an expanse of empty pews, those dead-eyed statues, next of kin and a few loiterers. The truth was painfully evident to Billie Jean and Chrissie, two of the biggest stars in the game's history. They were as popular in Rome as Pizza Hut. Women's tennis in Italy had the status of breakfast, something to be gotten out of the way early and fast before the day's consequential business began.

1:31:09Rome was the fiscal turning point for the women all roads upward led from Rome during that third year of openly paid tennis in 1970 the prize money ratio set by male administrators generally favored the men two to one and by the way I looked up the um the prize money for this last year and it is still two to one but the painful fact Bud writes for Billie Jean King in Rome was that she collected$600 for her championship while Ilya Nastasi took$3 ,500 for his. So six times the amount. A six to one payoff made her realise we'd get nowhere at the mercy of the men who ran the federations, Billie Jean said.

1:31:56But for Rome and the women it was a distressing decline and fall and it was a distressing decline and fall until 1987. Italian officials appearing to be misogynists confirmed my worst view of them by evicting the women from the foro altogether in 1980. This was but one symptom of the mismanagement and neglect by inept caretakers. The women's end of the Open was shunted off to a small out-of-the-way club in Perugia, and in 1986, for the first time in 36 years since the tournament was revived on an international basis after World War II, there was no Italian championship for women. But the Eternal City has seen all the boom and bust stories from a phasing out of Lions as matinee idols to the restoration of various ruins, including the Italian Open, which stands proud again.

1:32:46As one of those who regrets the saturation of the game by agents, I must also credit and thank IMG for the marketing and counselling that has resuscitated the tournament. To some degree, at least. That's me. i share his views guys i mean i whenever we get asked in our friends q and a shows what's your favorite tournament which one should i go and see so often i say rome because and i'd not read bud's view on it although i seem to remember being at tournaments in rome where bud was at and i you know you could tell he loved it but it's it's it's it's an affection and a romance but it's it's also a look of disapproval of various elements of it and and that comes through in that passage i think i'm pretty grim to hear that and know that things are the same now not just in terms of prize money you know that's the headline but how many events does it feel like the attitude is get the women out of the way and get the main show on the road.

1:33:58And so often with those schedules that are slanted that way, they can hide behind equality. Oh, we have the same number of men's and women's matches on the main court or on the show courts. They can point to something to hide behind. But you know, you know what's going on. and that still feels so so prevalent today depressingly it's like it's like the universe is sort of every action has an equal and opposite reaction it's like the universe sends all the best tournaments just a heavy dose of grotesque sexism just to balance things out it's like can't we just have the French Open without Amelie Maresmo?

1:34:46Why can't we have nice things? Yeah, I think I would have liked Bud. Here he is in the very same book, My Life with the Prose, on the birth of Breakfast at Wimbledon and how Roscoe Tanner saved the day. Breakfast at Wimbledon was the invitation NBC sent across the United States without a whole lot of assurance that anyone would respond by switching on a set to watch a game of tennis at 9am, 7am on the West Coast. The breakfast motif was coined by Bob Bash as aid to the imaginative, hard-driving NBC executive producer of sport Don Olmeyer. A big, self-confident, sometimes abrasive character, Olmeyer, had been brought in from ABC to enliven NBC's sports coverage.

1:35:44Quickly, he realised that although NBC had broadcast Wimbledon for a decade, those showed made not even semi-quavers. The reason was clear to him and anybody who cared for tennis. The final show was a chop-and-paste, tape-delay production that aired late Saturday afternoon following a live baseball game. If the ball game ran long, possibly extra innings, the women's and men's singles finals were slashed accordingly. However, Olmeyer sized up Wimbledon accurately as the world's premier international sporting event other than the quadrennial Olympic Games. NBC had been treating an extremely valuable property like an odd cousin living in the attic.

1:36:26It wasn't even benign neglect. Why not show it live? Wasn't it self-defeating not to televise the finals in their entirety? Wouldn't people arise a little early to witness the spectacle as it happened? All of it. That was Olmeyer's logical plaint. He was answered from higher up that no serious, consuming American adult would face up to a TV set at nine or earlier on a Saturday morning for tennis. But Olmeyer persisted and got his way. It was a way that worried even the bluff, chain-smoking Olmeyer when the day of the first breakfast at Wimbledon arrived, and he didn't have the cast he wanted, needed even.

1:37:11Bjorn Borg, the resolute angelic Swede, was in the final, trying for a fourth successive title, but the brash basher Jimmy Connors was not. The considered wisdom was that breakfast at Wimbledon required an American challenging Borg in order to succeed in the only place commercial TV matters, the ratings. But Roscoe Tanner was not that American. Even though I called lightning-serving Roscoe bullet man and the Stamford hillbilly, these were fanciful appellations.

1:37:47aside from his southpaw serve there was nothing menacing about roscoe he looked like an insurance executive almost as bad as the news of tanner's ascension to the final was the late hour refusal of the wimbledon committee even to consider a five minute alteration in their hallowed timetable that was requested by Olmeyer. Schooled in America where TV networks backed by huge rights fees called the tune for all sports promoters, Olmeyer had neglected to clear well in advance his production plans. All he wanted, a paltry wish, Dunn thought, was for the two finalists to stride onto Centre Court at 2.05pm.

1:38:30Big fan of faff was our Don, rather than the traditional precisely at 2. preparing to send the first live Wimbledon telecast to the States NBC had charged up the prelude with the sort of ballyhoo and build-up it warranted an elaborate tease, the lead-in pictures, music and pronouncements designed to hook the viewer electronic foreplay of course a commercial or two would be in there as well and an appearance of the announcers to provide a scene set just a lousy five minute delay for Christ's sakes Olmire was steaming Wimbledon wouldn't budge. Not on, old chap. Never been done, was the usual answer whenever NBC or anybody else desired to innovate at the big W.

1:39:16It wasn't that they were unsympathetic or even insensitive to money and the commercial realities of American television. No tournament is more commercial than Wimbledon. However, the huckstering is done so tastefully you hardly notice. Never will sponsors and underwriters be brought into the act. trumpeting their wares over loudspeakers, as is customary at the high-crass presentation of trophies and, of course, Czechs during the US Open. Olmeyer sensed artistic disaster for his highly publicised concept. By the time teas and commercials had rolled onto the screen, the match would be five minutes old.

1:39:55The first set might have been determined by an early service break. The critics up at grisly dawn at Olmeyer's behest would be stirring their coffee with harpoons awaiting his breakfast gaffes. Can you do anything for us, Olmeyer turned hopefully to my commentary partner Donald Dell, the agent and well-known power broker. Nobody knew the game better. If anybody could help out, it was him. Dell, who was Tanner's agent, replied to Olmeyer, I can't do anything with the committee, but let me see. Two o 'clock arrived, but Borg and Tanner did not. Producer Ted Nathanson and director Jeff Mason commanded the proper buttons to be pushed, and NBC's Peacock came onto the screen.

1:40:41On flowed the images, gilded by Stefan Edberg, double-decker buses, Queen Elizabeth presenting the 1977 trophy to Virginia Wade, Bjorn Borg kneeling in triumphant thanks, Martina Novatova defeating Chris Evert in the 1978 final, or Big Ben, the changing of the guard. Still, no Borg or Tanner. Minutes went by. Del gave me a conspiratorial smirk. At 2.06, with everyone in the production truck feeling a lot better, Bjorn and Roscoe were sighted at last, emerging from the doorway below the royal box. So why had Borg and Tanner been late? Their tardiness, apparently unnoticed by the audience, was unremarked upon, except gratefully by our NBC leaders.

1:41:31For whatever reason, none of us knew at the moment. I would find out about Tanner's bladder-blaming stall from Del, only later, after he'd talked with Tanner. In the dressing room, Del had told Tanner of NBC's problem and asked him to dawdle somehow. As Roscoe and Bjorn were notified that it was time to leave the dressing room, the American excused himself, saying he had to go to the bathroom. There, he sequestered himself for five minutes. Leonard Roscoe Tanner III, a one-to-eight shot in the lies of London bookmakers, ought to get a medal from NBC for enabling the network not to lose its breakfast in 1979 on a couple of counts.

1:42:16Once he came out of the bathroom after the prologue-saving interval Roscoe gave us the match of his life. By the time of the 1983 dud, McEnroe over Lewis, breakfast at Wimbledon had been established. The concept was solid, and that is because Roscoe Tanner had raised his right hand and lied a little, saying that he had to go to the bathroom before he raised his left hand and nearly brained Bjorn Borg. Now, I do love that story, but under the proposed Catherine Mitica rules of tennis, Roscoe Tanner would have been defaulted. The match was called, you didn't show up, game over. You can have five minutes so they can bring it on air properly, can't you?

1:43:03Well, yeah, I would have supported their pleas to officially move the start time back by five minutes. Okay, so you and Buckley. I mean, he'd have loved it these days. A match is scheduled at 7pm and you know damn well first ball isn't happening until 7.25. Bud would have hated that too. So he'd be right with you. Heck of a book, Matt. Heck of a book. The fun you must have had in the Wimbledon Library. Yeah, so much fun. And actually an even bigger treat for me on my most recent trip to the Wimbledon Library because Hannah was there. Couldn't believe that photo when it dropped. just happening to stumble into one of our favourite people in one of our favourite places.

1:43:49So good, so good. So heartwarming. And the thing that came across with Bud's book, as you noted, David, with that passage there on Rome, how relevant so much of it still feels. And that's what came across to me. I wasn't even necessarily looking for this sort of stuff, but it just jumped out at me and i just wanted to touch on a couple of little elements um that bud wrote about which you know almost feels like they could have been written today to be quite honest um here he says the game is elementary either the ball goes over the net or it doesn't lands inside the rectangle or outside the politics are hardly rectangular but multi-sided and angled at times so ridiculous and incomprehensible that no newspaper dares bore its readers with more than an occasional stab at the subject tennis is the balkans of sport power shifts continually as wars flame among those who seek to exert control and i'm sure that you know charlie Eccleshire and Matt Futterman and Simon Briggs would all absolutely agree with that today you know when they try and write about the politics of tennis I think people are interested in it but trying to explain it succinctly and in a way that people understand is is so confusing and to try and do that Bud of course came up with some nicknames and he had these nicknames for various people involved in tennis players were hares and officials were badgers in his words and he said badgers overwhelmingly male inhabitants of the tennis hierarchy ranging from national and international offices committee and tournament personnel take their name from conspicuous badges of office and political achievement worn as decorations and battle ribbons almost since the beginning of tennis time they festoon the lapels of suit coats usually navy blue blazers blazered badges are ever anxious to let you know who they are by their badges president of this or that club association or federation chairman of whatever tournament or committee and when you know when Bud started out, badgers were everywhere and gradually open tennis changed things.

1:46:28And he says, times changed. The creatures of the kingdom multiplied and the badgers were shaken by a revolution that struck them like the overflow of Mount Vesuvius. Although not yet extinct, like Pompeians, the badgers nearly 2 ,000 years later felt a scorching and disestablishing flow all the same. Instead of lava, it was the hot breath of newcomers. Beavers, that's unionists, and vultures, that's agents, lawyers, and marketeers, evolved at the eruption of open tennis in 1968 to begin melting the Badger's nearly century-long dominance over the game. Male Beavers, the ATP, were soon followed by the female Beavers.

1:47:16That's the WTA. and you know it's just a really sort of fun way of explaining how things change with open tennis and then i came across this on the on the on the growing role of agents in the game he said but in no other sport have they moved in so thoroughly to cover all financial outlets and in this free booting arena they've generally done well by their clients whether players or tournaments Their constant activity has helped grow the game and make it prosper. But too often, their actions are detrimental to the spirit and the health of the game, simply because their interests are solely commercial.

1:47:59The care and maintenance of a public trust like tennis requires soul and devotion. I just feel like, you know, that should be... Tattooed. Tattooed. yeah every tennis player they should be made to read those words and then if that weren't enough I came across possibly the most remarkable passage this really this is unreal which I read out at our Wrexham live show a few weeks ago Wrexham enjoyed this you know when we were talking about the calendar we were always talking about the calendar Well, Bud Collins had the solution in 1989. Listen to this. What is needed is a sensible nine-month season at most, concluding shortly after the US Open.

1:48:55That would provide an off-season, a relief from the grind such as existed during the days of the lost civilization of summer game amateurism. The sport cries out for a time to heal mind and body, refresh, reflect and recharge batteries. a time for self-improvement and practice that is virtually impossible now, as the computer calls the pressurised tune. And yes, a separate time for all the exos that almost anybody could desire. Detracting and distracting from the circuits, they should be banned during a regulation season that would ideally run from January through September. But will agents, players and administrators ever come together in true long-term concern for the game to agree on such a beneficial reduction of the bloated calendar.

1:49:51Not yet, bud. Not yet. It's incredible, isn't it? 36 years ago, he wrote that. And last week, we've had Jack Draper, who was more than a decade away from being born, who's talking about you know how he wishes the calendar was not was less than it is you know it's

1:50:18extraordinary yeah so i just i just really think those extracts from the book just this you know just show off bud as someone so perceptive so funny so interesting so engaged in the sport and And yeah, I just wanted to sprinkle this show with a few of those. Yeah, and sprinkle the show as well with some tributes to Bud from over the years, from, well, some names that you'll know, a lot of names that you'll know, some distinguished names within the sport, because there's no one with a bad word to say about Bud. I mean, people were queuing up David to pay tribute to him in 2016 when he passed away.

1:51:05Yeah, yeah, this is quite the list and quite a list of accounts, starting with Steve Tigner, who I mentioned earlier, who writes for tennis.com. A small town kid, Bud, he was. Like many of us, a bumpkin drawn to the elegance and cosmopolitan nature he saw in tennis. But once he made it behind the sports country club walls, he wanted to bring as many people along with him as he could. Collins always lamented the snobbishness that had made tennis, in his words, a secret sport for so long. He was a democratiser with a live-and-let-live attitude. He was casually progressive. He loved the game's history, but he also loved to see that history move forward.

1:51:51He was thrilled to have a chance to cover Althea Gibson's US Open victory and to follow Arthur Ashe on his path-breaking journey in the 1960s. He loved the dual-gender theatrics of World Team Tennis, a league that he described as a delightful sexual aberration. And unlike many sportswriters of his era, he treated the men's and women's tours as equal attractions. If anything, Bud was more closely associated with WTA stars like Everton King than he was with the top men. In that sense, Collins' writing helped highlight the progressive potential that has always existed in tennis. And here's Steve Flink, who we've had on the podcast before on Tennis Relived, somebody I'm happy to say we still see in media rooms on the tennis circuit today, who knew Bud well and has been a writer for so many years.

1:52:41And Steve wrote, Bud was a singularly influential reporter and commentator who lifted the game into another sphere. He was an immensely gifted communicator, steeped in knowledge about his subject. He was a singular tennis figure, larger than life. With his ever-present sharp wit and infectious smile, he earned the respect of players and press alike for his knowledge, professionalism and incomparable sense of humour. Collins belonged at the centre of the tennis universe because the sport was, for so long, his lifeblood. No one loved it more or took it less for granted. Outside of an elite cast of players who have transcended tennis, few individuals have done more than Collins to raise the game's profile.

1:53:25He was an astonishingly far-reaching individual who relished being a renowned journalist boosting the popularity of the sport. I mean that I would be so proud to be remembered like that you know a journalist who cared for the for the sports and and was trying to boost its popularity and I don't think anybody did that more than Bud really and look there's a few other names here ones you'll really recognize Chris Evert said Bud had a passion for the game and the players that was unmatched He brought a bright light and an oasis to the often pressure-filled and ego-oriented world of professional tennis.

1:54:05I would relax around his warmth and wit. He was family. That's Chris Hevert saying that about a guy who's got to basically doorstep interview her after her hardest losses. He was family. Dick Enberg shared a commentary box with Bud Collins for many, many years, and he said at the time, He was as colourful as his trousers, which were his signature, and yet it was really misleading to the average fan. That was his MO for television. In person, he was the quietest guy in the room. He laughed the most at somebody else's comment. He always had a smile and never dominated the conversation. Richard Evans, a good friend of ours and colleague in the media room who has appeared on this show before, wrote, Bud Collins dared to be different and in doing so changed the image of the sport he loved.

1:54:56If your writing is going to be peppered with weird and wonderful nicknames, Fingers Fortesk, for his imaginary net judge was my favourite, and your dress sense extends to a never-ending selection of rainbow-coloured trousers, you'd better know what you're talking about. And Bud did. He not only wrote and broadcast on tennis, but he played and coached it and could dissect a match as well as any ex-player in the commentary box. I think maybe my favourite of these contributions comes from S.L. Price from Sports Illustrated, who really sums up the Bud that I encountered personally on the tennis tour.

1:55:37Scott wrote, with Bud, everybody tells the same story. I was a young writer and nobody, knowing nothing. Mr Collins, meaning for a time the most famous face in the game, repository of its secrets and its histories and thus well positioned to be a small man, a territorial self-important ass, can ask you a question. A glance up from the keyboard. Papers, books scattered all over his desk. A line of TV types, ex-players, coaches and fans waiting to talk just to say hello to Bud. Ask too, he said. He gave you everything. Insight, out-of-school tales, phone numbers. You weren't special. He gave everybody who asks everything they needed, because he loved the game.

1:56:26He loved the attention you paid it, good or bad. And whatever it took to keep that attention coming was more important than some minor scoop. He gave tennis his all, and that was a gift beyond knowledge it's impossible to resist bottomless enthusiasm

1:56:47and one I found from Paul Newman written in the independent in his obituary was was another one that I experienced in in person at the time Paul wrote his empathy with the players was encapsulated as recently as 2009 at the end of Andy Roddick's post Wimbledon final press conference after the American had lost agonizingly to Roger Federer 17-15 in the fifth set and I remember this long long press conference this funereal press conference really where Andy Roddick is trying to digest and process and deal with what's just happened to him as his heart was broken yet again and when the the press comments reached a sort of natural conclusion bud's voice rang out and he said liberate this man and um everybody stopped asking questions andy roddick stood up and bud said well done andy and roddick just said thank you and it was it was really i was in there i was in that room and it was really really quite moving you know and bud is the only guy who could have said that and and it feel right

1:58:11gosh i quoted that last week about lorenzo mazzetti

1:58:18who is currently not at all liberated in fact he's due on court very soon he's just got on he's on with Taylor Fritz oh my god when we when we announced that this was going to be our our next Tennis Relived show we heard from Tom Sancinetti long time friend and supporter of the show owner of Maisie Go Tom go Maisie Tom got in touch to say that he knew Bud pretty well. And he gave us his own personal tribute to Bud. He said that we met while dining one night at adjoining tables at Lusardi's Restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York during the 1992 US Open. Tom says he was curious as to the markings on that day's order of play that I was studying.

1:59:14I explained to him that I regularly patrolled the outer courts at tennis tournaments and made notes on up-and-coming players. Bud asked if he could see my list from that day, and a friendship that lasted until his death in 2016 was born. He regretted that his current schedule as a writer and TV commentator prevented him from wandering the outer courts to see the tightly contested early round matches. Consequently, he requested that I send him a copy of my year-end list of up-and-comers as his spotter. I did so for the next 24 years.

2:00:00And we've also had some tributes come in on the barge as well from people that Bud left a lasting mark with. Grace Lichtenstein says, Bud was a sweetheart. When I covered Wimbledon for the first time in 1973 for my book A Long Way, Baby, behind the scenes in women's pro tennis, I was a newbie. Bud, who was there for the Boston Globe, was helpful and kind. After the final between Billie Jean and Chris Evert, he presented me with three grass-stained tennis balls that were used in the match. One of those Schlesinger 1973 LTA official balls still has a place of honour on my bookshelf along with Bud's tennis encyclopedia.

2:00:46Hank Kimmel says favourite Bud Collins moment while announcing a match the camera pans to the father of one of the players. The father is picking his nose. Without missing a beat, Bud says nice forehand.

2:01:01Whenever my daughter and I spot someone picking their nose we say nice forehand, not to pass judgment but in tribute to our dearest Bud Eleanor on the barge says, Bud Collins made tennis come alive for me from the time I was a child on into adulthood I'm from Massachusetts and Bud wrote for the Boston Globe covering tennis with some politics on the side as inimitable of a tennis broadcaster as he was he was also a terrific writer Boston has never wanted for talented sports writers arguably the most gifted of the Globes roster of journalists at the time and Bud's column was right up there with the writers covering the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and boxing.

2:01:44As far as televised matches were concerned back then the excitement I felt for Wimbledon was directly tied to the knowledge that I'd be able to watch and listen to Bud Collins for two weeks straight. His quirkiness, deep knowledge of the sport and its history and of course irresistible charm jumped through the screen and microphone. I don't know if I would have followed the sport without the influence of this born raconteur. And finally, Chris Palmer says, I remember Bud Collins regaling a tale to a bunch of fans at the Aussie Open about the greatest tennis match in history, the match of the century, between Helen Wills Moody and Suzanne Longlin.

2:02:23He painted visions of people cramming on hills and rooftops to watch as the court was too small and the ebbs and flows of the match itself. And at the end, he just left them there, astonished at what they'd heard. Bard Collins, the great raconteur.

2:02:43He sure was.

2:02:48You've done him proud, Matt, with your research there. Yeah. And David with your interviews as well and that wonderful montage that I think I'm going to listen to again. Yeah, a wonderful show that I'm proud to have been a part of. Me too. Me too. so thank you thank you to everybody that contributed to this show in particular Mike and Mary so wonderful to get those first hand accounts of extraordinary experiences with Bud Collins and we hope that we've brought him to life for everybody listening because that's exactly what Bud Collins deserves, a larger than life character who always saw tennis as the star which is how it should be so thank you bud we will think of you every time we see a neck cord neck cord this has been the tennis podcast and tennis relive thanks for listening we'll speak to you soon