Kelli Johnson

Kelli Johnson
Born 1975/1976 (age 41–42)[1]
Alma mater University of Idaho
Occupation Sports anchor
Employer NBC Sports Bay Area
Home town Moscow, Idaho, U.S.

Kelli Johnson is a sports anchor on NBC Sports Bay Area in San Francisco, California where she co-hosts the shows SportsNet Central and The Happy Hour, providing coverage on the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants as well as other teams.[2] Growing up in Moscow, Idaho, she played basketball for University of Idaho and went into sports broadcasting with various places such as Medford, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and St. Louis, Missouri. With Comcast, she worked with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic in the Washington D.C. region, Comcast SportsNet Houston, and eventually NBC Sports Bay Area.

Background

Johnson is a native of Moscow, Idaho. Both of her parents were coaches (baseball and gymnastics) and physical education teachers.[3]

Kelli played point guard for the Moscow High School girl's basketball team. During that time, the team had a three-year winning streak, where they won three consecutive state titles.[3][4] The Moscow-Pullman Daily News named her State A-2 Most Valuable Player for her senior year.[3]

In 1994, she continued her basketball career immediately, as a freshman in her home town, at the University of Idaho as a shooting guard for the Idaho Vandals women's basketball team.[3] She started all 110 games of her career, which were the third most in school history.[3] As a junior, she set the record for the most three-point field goals in a game (seven) against the University of North Texas.[3] That season, she also broke the career 3-point school record.[3] By the end of her college career, Kelli had made 207 3-pointers – 81 more than the nearest contender.[3][5] These records stood for 19 and 17 years, respectively.[3] Johnson graduated in 1998 from Idaho with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.[6] She joined her father in the Idaho Vandals Hall of Fame in 2016.[3][7]

Sports reporting career

Johnson's first job was as a sports reporter for KTVL in Medford, Oregon in 1999.[1] After ten months at the station, she moved to Time Warner Cable in Austin, Texas, still doing sports reporting.[8] Eighteen months later, she had her first position with an NBC affiliate in St. Louis, KSDK.[8]

Then, in 2003, she joined Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, covering the Baltimore Orioles and, then, the Washington Redskins and Washington Nationals.[8] In 2012, she joined Comcast SportsNet Houston as a sports anchor for SportsNet Central.[9][10] In 2014, after a layoff from a rebranding of the Houston office,[11] Johnson joined Comcast SportsNet Bay Area in San Francisco where she began covering the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors.[3] In 2017, Johnson began hosting The Happy Hour, a conversational discussion sports program with media personalities Greg Papa and Ray Ratto.[12][13]

References

  1. 1 2 Hammericksen, Randy (December 4, 1999). "Reporter shows she has game". Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  2. ↑ Johnson, Kelli (February 6, 2017). "We're not unicorns -- we do exist". NBC Sports Bay Area. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Hall of Fame: Kelli Johnson". govandals.com. University of Idaho Vandals Athletics. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ "girls' state basketball champions" (PDF). idhsaa.org. Idaho High School Activities Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  5. ↑ "University of Idaho Women's Basketball Guide 2010/2011". University of Idaho Women's Basketball. pp. 54–55. Retrieved June 18, 2018 – via issuu.com.
  6. ↑ "Kelli Johnson". LinkedIn Corporation. Retrieved February 24, 2018 – via LinkedIn.
  7. ↑ "Locally: University of Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2016". spokesman.com. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 Shapiro, Leonard (November 13, 2007). "Comcast's Johnson Earns Redskins' Respect". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Kelli Johnson leaving D.C. market for CSN Houston". The Washington Post. September 13, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  10. ↑ Barron, David (September 13, 2012). "Kelli Johnson coming from D.C. to CSN Houston". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ "75 Comcast SportsNet Houston employees facing layoffs". chron.com. September 16, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  12. ↑ de la Cruz, Jay (March 29, 2017). "NBC Sports Bay Area servers up The Happy Hour with Greg Papa, Ray Ratto and Kelli Johnson". nbcsports.com (Press release). Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  13. ↑ Berman, Steve (May 22, 2017). "Why Comcast and NBC haven't brought their 'A' game to Bay Area TV viewers". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
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