Former Canadian soccer player Brian Budd passed away late Wednesday night.

He was 56. Budd was found collapsed at his Toronto home, but the cause of death was not immediately known.

He is survived by his wife Brenda, and his son and daughter.

Budd was best known for winning ABC's World Superstars championship, a televised competition in which accomplished athletes from different sports competed in a variety of athletic challenges.

He won the competition three years in a row from 1978 to 1980, beating out such accomplished athletes as United States Olympic pole vault champion Bob Seagren and NFL star Greg Pruitt.

His domination of the competition led to ABC establishing the Budd rule, which barred anyone from taking part in the event after winning it three times.

Over the past several years, Budd rose to fame as a broadcast analyst for The Score, an all-sports cable network based in Toronto, where he entertained viewers with his loud and passionate rants about the game.

But colleague James Sharman said Budd, known as "Budgie" to his close friends, also had a quiet side.

"Behind the gregarious and loud behaviour was a guy who had a heart of gold and someone who was deeply passionate about soccer," Sharman, a soccer commentator at The Score, told CBCSports.ca.

Like a 'strong gust of wind'

"He never had a bad word to say about anybody."

Sharman worked alongside Budd for several years at The Score, playing the straight man to Budd's John Madden-esque persona.

"Budgie never walked into a room, he blew into it like a strong gust of wind. The world will be a much more quiet place with Budgie gone," quipped Sharman.

Born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver, Budd played seven seasons in the old North American Soccer League from 1974 to 1980 with several clubs, including the Toronto Blizzard and Vancouver Whitecaps.

In addition to playing in indoor soccer with the Cleveland Force and Baltimore Blast in the Major Indoor Soccer League, Budd scored two goals in seven games for the Canadian national team, including one against the United States in 1976 in a World Cup qualifying game.

Following his retirement, Budd served as a regular colour commentator for Toronto Blizzard radio and television broadcasts in the early 1980s.