Kevin Harlan facts for kids

Kevin Robert Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, and a three-time National Sportscaster of the Year (2017, 2019, 2023), he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT. 2024 will be his 40th consecutive season doing NFL play-by-play, and 2024–25 is his 38th year doing NBA play-by-play. He has broadcast 14 consecutive Super Bowls, the most in radio or television history. He is also the lead NFL radio voice nationally for Westwood One and Monday Night Football since 2009. Overall, he is third all time in the total number of network television sports broadcasts doing play-by-play for one of the four major sports. Harlan has also broadcast more than 500 NFL games on network TV, top 10 all time joining names like Al Michaels and Pat Summerall for play-by-play.

Until 2008, Harlan was the voice of Westwood One Radio's Final Four coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In 2009, he began serving as Westwood One's lead announcer for Monday Night Football, calling his first Super Bowl in Super Bowl XLV. Super Bowl 58 was his 14th consecutive Super Bowl for Westwood One (Super Bowls XLV–LVIII), the most consecutively in radio and television network history. Harlan also broadcast the CBS HD feed of Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. He also calls the preseason games of his hometown Packers for the team's statewide television network since 2003. He is one of three broadcasters to have more than 3,000 career national TV network broadcasts of the four major professional sports, along with Dick Stockton and Marv Albert.

Biography

Harlan began broadcasting as a teenager for his alma mater Our Lady of Premontre High School's high school radio station, WGBP-FM, calling play-by-play for the school's boys' basketball, football and ice hockey teams. He was recently inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. He was a ball boy with the Green Bay Packers in his teens during the time that his father, Bob Harlan, was a Packers executive in the front office. He had originally pursued attending either the University of Wisconsin–Madison or the University of Notre Dame in pursuit of his communications/mass media degree, but a personal recommendation from broadcaster Gary Bender to his dad Bob led Kevin to instead attend the University of Kansas and its School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Harlan was introduced to the Jayhawks' primary basketball play-by-play announcer at the time, Tom Hedrick, who noted Harlan's zeal for sports broadcasting and immediately considered him a protégé in the making. Hedrick gave Harlan a sideline position his freshman year, eventually deeming him as his understudy and fill-in announcer on days when he had other commitments. Harlan graduated in 1982 with a broadcast journalism degree. During his time at Kansas, he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

In 1982, right out of college, at age 22, Harlan became the TV and radio voice of the NBA's Kansas City Kings (now the Sacramento Kings). He was then a basketball announcer for his alma mater, the University of Kansas, for one year, then went on to call games for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs from 1985 to 1993 after several years hosting and producing surrounding pre-game and post-game programming while still in college. Harlan also split time with the University of Missouri (1986–89) calling football and basketball games, and worked as the play-by-play voice of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves for nine seasons (1989–98). On the network level, Harlan called NFL football for NBC in 1991, college football for ESPN in 1992–93, NFL for Fox from 1994 to 97–, and joined Turner Sports in 1996 to broadcast NBA playoff games (he would begin calling games throughout the entire season in 1997, which he continues to do to this day). Harlan broadcast his first NBA All Star game for TNT in 2022, as well as the Western Conference Finals. He began working for CBS in 1998 after four years at FOX.

In addition, Harlan has called Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, and Green Bay Packers preseason games; boxing for Mike Tyson vs. Buster Mathis Jr. in 1995; basketball games during the now-defunct Goodwill Games, which were owned by Time Warner; college sports on ESPN; and several bowl games during college football seasons. Harlan has also lent his voice on the NBA 2K video game series since 2005.

In 2017, Harlan was voted by his peers as National Sportscaster of the Year by the NSMA. He again was voted National Sportscaster of the Year by the NSMA in 2019. He was also named 2019 National Sportscaster of the Year by The Athletic. In September 2019 Harlan was inducted into the Notre Dame Academy High School Hall of Fame (the former Premontre HS he attended in Green Bay, Wisconsin).

Notable calls

Harlan has a history of injecting humor into situations during games whenever he can, in addition to being able to dramatize even mundane moments not related to the game itself. These include:

May 12, 2008 – Harlan was the play-by-play announcer for TNT's coverage of the NBA second-round playoff game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. Boston led the series 2-1, and Cleveland was leading game four 82-75, when LeBron James drove the lane and finished with a vicious dunk, leading Harlan to exclaim: "LeBron James with no regard for human life!"

September 12, 2016 – Harlan was the radio play-by-play man for Westwood One's coverage of the Monday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, where a fan ran onto the field. Harlan then proceeded to give a play-by-play of security chasing the man. Deadspin referred to the call as an "All Timer".

May 12, 2019 - Harlan was the play-by-play announcer for TNT's coverage of Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors. The game was tied at 90, and Toronto had possession with 4.2 seconds left. Kawhi Leonard received the ball and shot a dramatic buzzer beater that bounced off the rim four times before dropping in, winning the game and the series for Toronto.

November 4, 2019 – Harlan was the radio play-by-play for Westwood One's coverage of a Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants where a black cat ran onto the field midway in the second quarter.

November 10, 2019 – The following Sunday, Harlan was the play-by-play announcer for a game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. With Baltimore up 28–10 against Cincinnati, Ravens quarterback and MVP favorite Lamar Jackson used a spin move to elude several Bengals defenders for a 47-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach.

December 29, 2019 – Harlan was the television play-by-play commentator for the Los Angeles Chargers at the Kansas City Chiefs when he began calling the Miami Dolphins at the New England Patriots game in the Chargers vs Chiefs feed; with a New England loss, the Chiefs would claim the #2 seed in the playoffs and a bye week.

Rich Gannon, the analyst in the booth with Harlan, asked Harlan "I'm getting confused, what game are you calling?", to which Harlan responded with a very enthusiastic "I'M CALLING BOTH GAMES!"

February 7, 2021 – During Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Harlan was the radio play-by-play announcer when, in the closing minutes of the game, a streaker ran onto the field. The streaker was a man dressed in an undersized women's pink one-piece thong-style swimsuit and a pair of dark athletic shorts.

March 16, 2023 - During the 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Harlan was on the call, along with Dan Bonner and Stan Van Gundy when #13 Furman scored a go-ahead 3-pointer over #4 Virginia in the Round of 64 with 2.2 seconds to go due to a rogue pass from Virginia's Kihei Clark to Furman's Garrett Hien. Furman would win the game 68-67, giving them a win in their first tournament game since 1980. Video of Harlan making the call later went viral.

Personal life

Harlan has been married to his wife Ann for 36 years, and together they have four children and four grandchildren. Their daughter, Olivia, was a sideline reporter for ESPN, and now SkySports, throughout Europe. She is married to former NBA player Sam Dekker, who currently plays pro basketball in London and in the EuroLeague.