Ken Coleman

About

Kenneth Robert Coleman (April 22, 1925 – August 21, 2003) was an American radio and television sportscaster for more than four decades (1947–1989).

Coleman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1925, the son of William (a salesman) and his wife Frances. The family subsequently moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, and then to nearby Quincy, where he was raised. Coleman graduated from North Quincy High School in 1943. He was a pitcher on the North Quincy High School baseball team, and subsequently played in the semi-pro Park League. But Coleman had dreams of being a sports broadcaster from the time he was a boy, when he enjoyed listening to the games on radio.
After serving in the U.S. Army, where he was a sergeant during World War II, 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. He was hired by station WJDA in Quincy, where he worked as a sports reporter until 1951…