[2] He was a pitcher on the North Quincy High School baseball team,[3] and subsequently played in the semi-pro Park League.

[4] After serving in the U.S. Army, where he was a sergeant during World War II,[5] Coleman took oratory courses for one year at Curry College, and then broke into broadcasting in Rutland, Vermont, in 1947, working for station WSYB.

[9] Coleman joined a broadcast team that also included Ned Martin and color man Mel Parnell,[10] and signed a three-year contract that paid him $40,000 per year.

[11] Coleman broadcast the 1967 World Series (which the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals) for NBC television, working alongside Gowdy, and radio.

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.

In 1975, the Red Sox awarded their television rights to WSBK-TV and increased their telecast schedule from 65 to over 100 games,[12] and the new flagship station opted for a new broadcasting team, Dick Stockton and Ken Harrelson.

He worked with #2 announcers Rico Petrocelli, Jon Miller and Joe Castiglione during this "second term" with the Red Sox.

[13]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.

Coleman followed the routine of taking a swim in the Atlantic Ocean as often as he could through the late fall and into the earliest days of spring, until his death.