Kelli Johnson

Kelli Johnson is an American journalist and former sports anchor on NBC Sports Bay Area in San Francisco, California. She provided coverage on the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants as well as other teams. She co-hosted the shows SportsNet Central and The Happy Hour.[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.

Kelli Johnson
Born1975/1976 (age 44–45)[1]
Alma materUniversity of Idaho
OccupationSports anchor
EmployerNBC 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] The Happy Hour was canceled at the end of 2018 with the airing of its final episode on December 21.[14] In 2019, she hosts the pre-game and post-game programs for the San Francisco Giants.[15] On August 4, 2020, NBC Sports Bay Area announced that they would not be renewing Johnson's contract.[16][17]

References
  1. 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. "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 October 1, 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. 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.
  14. "'The Happy Hour' axed by NBC Sports Bay Area". December 14, 2018.
  15. "Kelli Johnson arrives as the new host of the Giants Pre- and Postgame shows on NBC Sports Bay Area". The San Francisco Examiner. March 31, 2019.
  16. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/04/kelli-johnson-out-at-nbc-sports-bay-area-as-layoffs-hit-network/
  17. https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/NBC-Sports-Bay-Area-lays-off-at-least-17-employees-15458933.php
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