Vic started training at the very early age of 8/9 years, at his father's gym (Old Kent Rd London) playing at being a referee.

Coached by his father, Vic had his first public bout (as "Young Bull") at the age of 15 yrs. The audience were so impressed with the performance that they threw money into the ring (known as 'nobbins' in those days and amounted to almost as much as the main wrestlers earned) but this meant that by accepting this money Vic was then classed as 'Professional' and not allowed to take part in any amateur sport from then onward.

In Vic's own words (an excerpt from the interview on another of Vic's pages here):

I used to go down the gym. Dad had the gym at the Old Kent Road at the Gas Works. He was the sports secretary for the South Metropolitan Gas Company. He had a big job because they were very keen on sport there. The rivals to the South Met Gas Company were the Gas Lighting Co Company. There was great rivalry between them, but we won out. I used to go down and play at refereeing when I was 8 years old. Dad used to take me down when I’d done what little homework I had to do and then I grew up in the game.

I had my first professional bout, well I wasn’t really a professional then, but I had my first sort of exhibition bout at the Paget Hall, Gillingham, near Rochester. I was against a chap called Ned Sparks. The reason I was made a professional was because the crowd liked my wrestling so much so that they threw money into the ring – half a crown here and there, and it mounted up. I got a write up, which said Mr Coleman (Bull Coleman was dad’s name) has produced a genius, and this money was thrown in the ring and I got the seconds to collect it. It was quite a bit and it worked out that with the half crowns, and a couple of notes went in too, I was making more than the top of the bill so I shared it with Sparks, I mean it was an exhibition bout. When I came off my dad said “Well done son”, and I said “Yes dad”, or words to that effect, and he said “Of course, you realise now that you’re professional”. I said “No, I’m not”. He said “Yes you are, under (and it was very, very strict in those days) the rules, anybody accepting money or things like that for a contest is classed as a professional”. So I became a professional at the age of about fifteen.

Question: Were you disappointed to have become professional, almost by default? Had you been taking part in amateur competitions, and you couldn’t do that any more?

Well it was very tempting, you know, to have all those half crowns and two shilling pieces as it was then, shillings and sixpences, they were all silver. So that started me on the road. And then I went in and I won the championship in the end.

Here is the transcript of a newspaper article on the bout, referred to by Vic, above:

ALL-IN WRESTLING: Fifteen Years Old Genius in Clever Bout at Gillingham.
     Some of the finest wrestling ever seen at the Paget Hall, Gillingham, was provided on Friday in a lightweight bout between Young Bull, the fifteen-years' old son of Bull Coleman, and Eddie Sparks.
     Judging by his performance on Friday, Young Bull apparently has little to learn in the art, and is already being hailed as a wrestling genius. Despite the greater age and experience of his opponent, Young Bull was definitely the better wrestler, and time and again he broke away from what seemed to be inescapable holds. Both wrestlers specialised in Indian arm and leg locks, cradle and hammer locks and on the whole the bout was the best seen at Gillingham for many months.
     Sparks went ahead in the third round, when Young Bull was forced to submit to a cradle lock. The latter equalised in the following round when Sparks had to submit to a hold, which might be described as "the perfect tie-up". Young Bull obtained the Indian leg-lock in the fifth round, and Sparks was again forced to submit.

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