Bud Collins, a tennis writer who foreshadowed today's journalists as multimedia brands, died Friday in Brookline, Mass., The Boston Globe reported. He was 86.
As The Globe's obituary put it: "In the early 1960s, after joining The Globe as a tennis writer, Bud Collins took a giant leap into the future of sports journalism when he stepped in front of a TV camera to offer commentary."
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Known as much for his wild trousers as his punchy, upbeat yet pointed commentary that strayed outside tennis' staid lines, Collins had been in failing health.