Ken Coleman
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Kenneth R. Coleman (April 22, 1925 - August 21, 2003) was an American radio and television sportscaster for 34 years (1954 - 1989). He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Coleman broke into broadcasting with the NFL Cleveland Browns (1952 - 1965), calling play-by-play of every touchdown that Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown ever scored. He also began his MLB broadcasting career in Ohio, calling Cleveland Indians games on television for ten seasons (1954 - 1963). 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.
In 1965, Coleman got a job with the Boston Red Sox, replacing Curt Gowdy. He broadcast the 1967 World Series (which the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals) for NBC television and radio. From 1975 to 1978 Coleman worked with the Cincinnati Reds' television crew. He also called NFL games for NBC in the early 1970s.
Coleman also did college football, especially in 1968 when he was the play-by-play announcer for the Yale-Harvard game, a game that will be forever be remembered for the incredible Harvard comeback from a 16-point deficit to tie Yale at 29-29.
Coleman returned to Boston in 1979. 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 radio booth until his retirement in 1989.
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 had the routine of taking a swim in the Atlantic Ocean every day (including the winter) until he died.
He was the father of the late Cleveland sports and newscaster Casey Coleman, who died in 2006.
Coleman was inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame on May 18, 2000 at the age of 75. He died three years later, aged 78.
[edit] Quotes
"Fly ball, left field...Yastrzemski is going hard...way back...way back...and he dives and makes a tremendous catch! One of the greatest catches I've ever seen!" - Ken Coleman on WHDH-TV, calling Carl Yastrzemski's over-the-shoulder catch of Tom Tresh's deep fly ball to left field at Yankee Stadium, preserving a no-hit bid by rookie Red Sox pitcher Billy Rohr, making his first major league start on April 14, 1967
"This is truly a love story...an affair 'twixt a town and a team...a town that had waited and waited for what seemed an Impossible Dream." - Coleman, introducing a television special that aired on WHDH-TV celebrating the 1967 "Impossible Dream" Red Sox
"Deep to right field...Number 44!" - Coleman on WHDH-TV, calling Yastrzemski's 44th home run at Fenway Park, tying him with Harmon Killebrew for the American League lead and giving him the Triple Crown, in the next-to-last game of the regular season on September 30, 1967
"STRIKE THREE! Roger Clemens has broken the Major League record for strikeouts in one game! He now has 20!" - Coleman on WPLM-FM, calling Roger Clemens' record-setting 20th strikeout in one game at Fenway Park, April 29, 1986, against Phil Bradley of the Seattle Mariners
Stanley ready, he throws and the pitch is inside, it gets away from Gedman...and..THE TIEING RUN IS HOME!!, THE TIEING RUN SCORES!! AND DOWN TO SECOND BASE GOES KNIGHT!!55 thousand, 78 fans go wild, as the Mets with 2 outs and the bases empty, in the last of the 10th, have tied it up!" Coleman calling the wild pitch by Bob Stanley that scored Kevin Mitchell to tie Game 6 of the 1986 World Series
