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.
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 girls' 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 hosted 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]
Other ventures
In addition to freelance reporting, Johnson announced in 2021 that she is involved as a real estate agent .[ 18]
References
^ a b Hammericksen, Randy (December 4, 1999). "Reporter shows she has game" . Mail Tribune . Medford, Oregon . Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
^ Johnson, Kelli (February 6, 2017). "We're not unicorns -- we do exist" . NBC Sports Bay Area . Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Hall of Fame: Kelli Johnson" . govandals.com . University of Idaho Vandals Athletics. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
^ "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 .
^ "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.
^ "Kelli Johnson" . LinkedIn Corporation. Retrieved February 24, 2018 – via LinkedIn .
^ "Locally: University of Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2016" . spokesman.com . Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
^ a b c Shapiro, Leonard (November 13, 2007). "Comcast's Johnson Earns Redskins' Respect" . The Washington Post . Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
^ "Kelli Johnson leaving D.C. market for CSN Houston" . The Washington Post . September 13, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
^ Barron, David (September 13, 2012). "Kelli Johnson coming from D.C. to CSN Houston" . Houston Chronicle . Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
^ "75 Comcast SportsNet Houston employees facing layoffs" . chron.com . September 16, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ " 'The Happy Hour' axed by NBC Sports Bay Area" . December 14, 2018.
^ "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.
^ "Kelli Johnson out at NBC Sports Bay Area as layoffs hit network" . August 4, 2020.
^ Letourneau, Connor (August 4, 2020). "NBC Sports Bay Area lays off at least 17 employees, including Giants host" . San Francisco Chronicle .
^ @KJohnsonNBCS (June 9, 2021). "No big deal… just a new Real Estate agent experiencing her first Broker Tour in San Francisco! Dang these streets a…" (Tweet ) – via Twitter .
External links