TENNIS : She Was the Perfect Complement

Bud Collins wears Technicolor pants. They are an explosion of red and orange and green and, wearing them, Collins looks as though somebody just grabbed him by the arms and dipped him in some pools of paint. He doesn’t wear them all the time, of course, but often enough to make his point.

Whether he is writing about tennis, as Collins does for the Boston Globe, or talking about it, as he does for NBC-TV, he believes that tennis ought to be just as much fun and as unpredictable and colorful as he is. With his long gray beard and gleaming bald head, Collins has successfully cast himself as a sort of tennis Puck, never short of a quip or a line.

For years, Mary Lou Collins was the perfect counterbalance to her husband. If Collins was zany and loud, Mary Lou was quiet and reserved.

On a warm June afternoon last year just before Wimbledon, Collins and Mary Lou and some friends spent the day in Cambridge, England. They watched the boats on Cam River, had afternoon tea and then decided to play croquet. Collins must have felt displaced in such a serene setting, for right in the middle of the game, he suddenly grew animated.

He became very competitive. He and Mary Lou were on the same team and they were losing. Red in the face, he began yelling at Mary Lou, who turned to him and replied, in her most dignified manner: “I’ll do it my way, thank you.”

Friends also relished telling of the time Mary Lou, Collins and friends had dined at an Italian restaurant on the upper East Side in New York when Bud was there covering the U.S. Open. Mary Lou ordered grappa, a sweet but potent brandy, and seemed to be enjoying herself more than usual after several glasses.

They were married six years ago, when Collins returned to Berea, Ohio, to receive an award from Baldwin-Wallace, his alma mater. Redheaded Mary Lou, who had been Collins’ high school sweetheart, was a widow when Collins came back into her life again. At the time, Collins was grieving the loss of his closest companion, Judy Lacey, who had died of a brain tumor.

Together at last, Collins and Mary Lou became inseparable. She went with him wherever Collins’ job took him. Then, she began complaining of headaches. Doctors found a tumor in her brain Dec. 27.

Mary Lou went into the hospital for surgery Jan. 5. Friends sent her grappa. She told them she would get well and Collins took her to Toronto, where she had experimental treatment. She died there Sunday, at 58. Funeral services will be held today in Berea, Ohio.

And now, the man who has been called the conscience of tennis has much on his mind.