Bud Collins, the legendary Boston Globe reporter and television broadcaster, died on 4 March this year, aged 86, after covering the sport he loved for 55 years – but his flair and colourful presence are set to be immortalised at the All England Club.
On Thursday his widow, Anita Ruthling Klaussen, donated an outfit, starring his trademark strawberry trousers, to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.
In everything he did, Bud Collins celebrated the fun of the game of tennis. Garish pants, gaudy slacks, flamboyant trews – call them what you will, his closet was an extension of the spirit he contributed wherever he travelled. Players come and go – generations of them during his career – but Bud was an ever-present friend to all. "There was no B list with Bud," a colleague once said. "Everyone was on the A list."
From top to bottom, the Wimbledon outfit that will add a zip of colour to the Museum’s collection includes a black tailored blazer, pink gingham shirt, trademark red bowtie with black dots, dark-green leather shoes, red and black striped socks and the magnificent strawberry pants.
“This outfit was very special. Bud would only wear it for the gentlemen’s singles final at Wimbledon,” Anita said. “Wimbledon was the highlight of his year.
He loved the tradition, the beauty and the play on grass. He played on grass himself, in bare feet.”
It was Bud’s tailor – Charlie Davidson at The Andover Shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts – who originally came up with the idea of him wearing “funny pants”. This was in the early 1960s, and the loud-patterned pair he donned for a Davis Cup tie in Cleveland was “too radical for those times”, says Anita.
“At first Bud was mortified by the reaction they prompted. People were whistling, and shouting out love-40, but when he climbed up to the broadcast box, he saw how much fun they were causing.”
People enjoyed Bud’s zanily colourful dress sense and he enjoyed the response it provoked. So began a tradition of buying beautiful fabric around the world to commemorate a sporting event.
After the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ heavyweight bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974, Bud would wear a pair made from material bought on the roadside in Zaire. He also wore bright pink florals, effervescent yellow, medleys of motifs, pastel orange, and three Aboriginal prints he liked to wear to the Australian Open.
The first version of a strawberry print for Wimbledon featured a smaller berry. “In 1991, the year Michael Stich won, Bud wore the pants with small strawberries on and Stich loved them so much Bud had a pair made up for him.” The bolder strawberry print was acquired in Italy.
“We were in Rome for the Italian Open, looking around churches one day, when I saw this bolt of fabric in the window of an upholstery shop,” Anita recalls. “I pointed it out to Bud as perfect for Wimbledon. He loved it, so we bought the fabric and had it made up into pants by a tailor in London.”
At his memorial service, Billie Jean King wore a pink jacket to mark Bud’s favourite colour. “Rather than white, he would wear pink shirts. He could have worn a plain pink shirt but he’d pick the pink checked one,” said Anita. “He had such an innate sense of style and fashion.
"He never wanted to look boring. Bowties were his signature accessory. I had some made for the ushers at his Memorial Service – Rod Laver and Stan Smith were among his 24 ushers – with the label Bud Collins, 1929 – 2016.”
After what must have been another emotional moment, Anita confirmed that Bud had talked of his desire for his special outfit to come to Wimbledon. It seems fitting to keep his sartorial tradition alive. As Anita said at his memorial service: “Bud will now and forever be the rainbow over Wimbledon.’’ Next year the outfit will be a centrepiece in an exhibition celebrating the history of broadcasting at The Championships.
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