TV personality Bud Collins to do final Wimbledon on NBC

Associated
Press

This
year’s “Breakfast at
Wimbledon” will
be Bud Collins’ last at NBC.

The
78-year-old sports writer and TV personality won’t have his contract renewed by
the network, making this his 35th and final
Wimbledon
with NBC.

“So I
had 35 great years with them. I have no complaints about them, but I hope to
stay in tennis,” Collins said Monday at the All England Club. “I’m
not retiring. Too young to retire.”

NBC Sports
spokesman Brian Walker declined comment.

Collins, a
correspondent for The Boston Globe, will work on the air in the same role he
has during recent Wimbledons, conducting on-court interviews after the men’s
and women’s singles finals.

“They’re
going to do a tribute, I understand. A retrospective,” Collins said.
“And I’ll be there and I’ll say … I had a wonderful career with NBC, I
was a very lucky guy, and I’m leaving but I don’t intend to leave tennis.”

Collins
began writing for the Globe in 1963 and is best known for his tennis coverage,
but he also has covered everything from baseball to boxing. He was inducted
into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994, and won the Red Smith Award
presented by The Associated Press Sports Editors in 1999.

He’s known
for his colorful words and colorful outfits.

Among the
nicknames he’s credited with bestowing on star tennis players are
“Fraulein Forehand” for Steffi Graf and “Sisters
Sledgehammer” for Venus and Serena Williams.