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Kenneth Robert Coleman (April 22, 1925 – August 21, 2003) was an American radio and television sportscaster for more than four decades (1947Pres Hobson. "Press Box." Quincy (MA) Patriot-Ledger, August 1, 1947, p. 8.–1989).
After serving in the U.S. Army, where he was a sergeant during World War II,D. Leo Monahan. "Coleman Vows Impartial Reporting." Boston Sunday Advertiser, March 6, 1966, p. 80. Coleman took oratory courses for one year at Curry College, and then broke into broadcasting in Rutland, Vermont, in 1947, working for station WSYB. He called the play-by-play of the Rutland Royals of the Vermont Northern League, a summer collegiate baseball circuit akin to the Cape Cod League. Coleman also was a newscaster and a deejay on the station.Pres Hobson. "Press Box." Quincy (MA) Patriot-Ledger, August 1, 1947, p. 8. He was hired by station WJDA in Quincy, where he worked as a sports reporter until 1951; he then worked for a year at WNEB in Worcester.D. Leo Monahan. "Coleman Vows Impartial Reporting." Boston Sunday Advertiser, March 6, 1966, p. 80. During this time, Coleman was broadcasting Boston University footballArt Cullison. "Strangers to Air Browns Games." Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal, July 25, 1952, p. 34. during the Harry Agganis era.
Coleman broadcast college football for various teams, including Ohio State and Harvard, as well as BU. He was the play-by-play announcer for the 1968 Harvard-Yale football game, a game forever remembered for the incredible Harvard comeback from a 16-point deficit to tie Yale at 29–29 in the game's last 42 seconds. Coleman also called NFL games for NBC in the early 1970s, and later in his career called Connecticut and Fairfield basketball games for Connecticut Public Television.
Coleman was the "Voice of the Red Sox" on both WHDH-AM 850 and the original WHDH-TV for six seasons, through 1971. When the FCC revoked WHDH's television license during the winter of 1971–1972, the Red Sox split their radio and TV announcing crews and signed a three-year contract with WBZ-TV. Coleman and color man Johnny Pesky worked exclusively on television through the 1974 season. In 1975, the Red Sox awarded their television rights to WSBK-TV and increased their telecast schedule from 65 to over 100 games,Craig, Jack (21 October 1974): "Channel 38 Holds Off on Sox TV team," The Boston Globe, page 39, via newspapers.com and the new flagship station opted for a new broadcasting team, Dick Stockton and Ken Harrelson. Coleman then returned to Ohio. From 1975 to 1978, he was the play-by-play man for WLWT and the Cincinnati Reds' television network, calling regular-season games for the Big Red Machine's back-to-back 1975–1976 World Series champions.
After the Red Sox' legendary radio combination of Ned Martin and Jim Woods were fired for failing to follow the dictates of sponsors following the 1978 season, Coleman went back to Boston in 1979 and spent 11 years as the Red Sox' top radio voice. He broadcast the Red Sox' 1986 World Series loss to the New York Mets and two Red Sox ALCS (1986 and 1988). Coleman remained in the Red Sox booth until his retirement in 1989. He worked with #2 announcers Rico Petrocelli, Jon Miller and Joe Castiglione during this "second term" with the Red Sox.
It was Coleman who was on the call on the Red Sox Radio Network when Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner let a groundball hit by Mookie Wilson of the New York Mets go through his legs at the end of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series:
In 1972, Coleman returned briefly to the NFL, rotating play-by-play duties with Stockton for New England Patriots' preseason games on WBZ-TV with no color commentators.
Additionally, he wrote books on sportscasting, was one of the founding fathers of the Red Sox Booster Club and the BoSox Club, and was intimately involved with the Jimmy Fund, which raises money for cancer research.
He was the father of the late Cleveland sports and newscaster Casey Coleman, who died in 2006 from pancreatic cancer.
Coleman was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame on May 18, 2000, at the age of 75. He died three years later, aged 78, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, from complications of bacterial meningitis."Ken Coleman: Longtime Sports Broadcaster." (Columbia, So. Carolina) The State, August 23, 2003, p. 9.
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