He worked with #2 announcers Rico Petrocelli, Jon Miller and Joe Castiglione during this "second term" with the Red Sox. Coleman remained in the Red Sox booth until his retirement in 1989. He broadcast the Red Sox' 1986 World Series loss to the New York Mets and two Red Sox ALCS (19). 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.Īfter 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 came back to Boston in 1979 and spent 11 years as the Red Sox' top radio voice. In 1975, the Red Sox awarded their television rights to WSBK-TV and increased their telecast schedule from 65 to over 100 games, and the new flagship station opted for a new broadcasting team, Dick Stockton and Ken Harrelson. Coleman and color man Johnny Pesky worked exclusively on television through the 1974 season. 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. Louis Cardinals) for NBC television, working alongside Gowdy, and radio.Ĭoleman was the "Voice of the Red Sox" on both WHDH-AM 850 and the original WHDH-TV for six seasons, through 1971. Coleman broadcast the 1967 World Series (which the Red Sox lost to the St. Coleman joined a broadcast team that also included Ned Martin and color man Mel Parnell, and signed a three-year contract that paid him $40,000 per year. In 1966, Coleman was named the lead play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox on both radio and television, succeeding Curt Gowdy, who resigned after 15 years of calling Red Sox games to become the top play-by-play voice for NBC's Major League Baseball Game of the Week. He 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. 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. In his first year with the Indians, Coleman called their record-setting 111-win season and their World Series loss to the New York Giants.Ĭoleman broadcast college football for various teams, including Ohio State and Harvard, as well as BU. He also began his MLB broadcasting career, calling Cleveland Indians games on television for ten seasons (1954–1963). He received critical praise for his college football play-by-play, which led to his big break: in 1952, he got the opportunity to broadcast for the NFL Cleveland Browns (1952–1965), calling play-by-play of every touchdown that Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown ever scored. During this time, he was broadcasting Boston University football during the Harry Agganis era.īroadcasting career Cleveland Indians and Browns 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. He also was a newscaster and a deejay on the station. 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. 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. But he had dreams of being a sports broadcaster from the time he was a boy, when he enjoyed listening to the games on radio. He was a pitcher on the North Quincy High School baseball team, and subsequently played in the semi-pro Park League. Coleman graduated from North Quincy High School in 1943. The family subsequently moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, and then to nearby Quincy, where he was raised. Kenneth Robert Coleman (Ap– August 21, 2003) was an American radio and television sportscaster for more than four decades (1947 –1989).Ĭoleman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1925, the son of William (a salesman) and his wife Frances.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |