Olivia Harlan returns to KC to work Saturday’s Division II title game featuring Northwest Missouri
From Shawnee Mission East cheerleader to sideline reporter for this weekend’s NCAA Division II championship football game in Kansas City, Kan., Olivia Harlan knows the game of football.
This year, she became the youngest ESPN hire for a full sports season in an on-camera role.
“This is such a big game to so many people,” Harlan said of the game between Northwest Missouri and Shepherd University of West Virginia. “I am so honored to get to cover this.
“I’ve been homesick. I haven’t been home in forever, (so) it is great to come home, too.”
This isn’t the only postseason game the 22-year-old Harlan will cover, either. She has also been assigned to cover the Fiesta and Cactus bowls for ESPN radio and another bowl for television.
“This is a business where bosses won’t tell you, ‘Good job’ ” she said. “You know how you are doing by the bowl games they assign you, and I’m thrilled.”
If you follow sports — particularly the NFL and NBA — Harlan’s name should ring a bell. Her dad is Kevin Harlan, longtime play-by-play broadcaster with CBS and TNT and former voice of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“He truly tried to talk me out of this (career) until he knew he was losing the battle,” Olivia Harlan said. “He knew there was truly no stopping it.”
While proud of her dad, Olivia Harlan wanted to make one thing very clear.
“My pet peeve is when people say, ‘Of course you are doing this because of your dad,’ ” she said. “He has never made a call on my behalf. The only thing that my dad has ever done to help me is critique me.”
Kevin Harlan is probably his daughter’s biggest fan.
“Ann and I are incredibly proud of Olivia,” Kevin said, referring to Olivia’s mom. “Olivia has handled a very tough business so well. She has shown incredible maturity for being only 22. She’s welcomed the challenge and enjoyed the process.”
Harlan said his daughter is a hard worker.
“She has such great attention to detail,” he said. “Always wanting to get better. Constantly poring over her tapes. I think that may be one of her best qualities. She is a willing learner with an endless work ethic.”
Olivia Harlan joined ESPN earlier this year after graduating from the University of Georgia in 2014 with a degree in digital and broadcast journalism. Based out of Atlanta, Harlan has been doing sideline reporting for college football games after serving as the sideline reporter for the Green Bay Packers’ preseason games on Packers TV Network. There is a family connection there as well: Harlan’s grandfather, Bob Harlan, was the longtime president of the Packers organization.
In addition to her football duties, Harlan hosts a weekly national studio show, “ACC-All Access,” that highlights news of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I host it alone and I write my own script,” she said. “I’m very proud of that show.”
Harlan is also in her second year as a sideline reporter for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. She travels with the team to games across the country.
“I am part of the pre-game show and I interview a player and coach before every game and report throughout the game,” she explained. “It is a big production.”
Harlan came to the sports network with a full resume of experience from her college years. She covered the Georgia Bulldogs for georgiadogs.com, creating and hosting “Dawg Sitting,” a weekly player profile. She was also a football beat reporter and hosted “Game Day” on Saturday mornings from the Georgia stadium.
Before joining ESPN this year, she covered SEC and ACC football for Fox Sports South and Raycom. She also co-hosted a daily Web series on packers.com for the team’s training camp.
The third-oldest of Kevin and Ann Harlan’s four children, Olivia got her first exposure to football as a kid when her dad worked as the play-by-play announcer for the Chiefs.
“Growing up, we couldn’t go to his away games, but whenever he was in town he would make a big deal about us going, saying, ‘Anyone who wants to get up at 8 a.m. can go,’ ” she said. “He said it would be boring, (but) I never stopped wanting to go and I never got bored. It fascinated me.”
Harlan said her dad would occasionally have her sit in the production truck in the parking lot.
“He said, ‘I want you to sit in the production trucks and watch all the hard work by people so you can see what they do to make us look good,’ ” Harlan said.
As a high school cheerleader at SM East, Harlan tried to explain football to her fellow squad members.
“I just thought it was something ever girl knew,” she said.
In her junior year, Harlan decided to enter a beauty pageant, much to her folks’ chagrin.
“My parents were so against this,” she said. “I promised them the interview portion is where I was going to win this. I ended up winning, and I was in complete shock.”
She was crowned Miss Kansas Teen USA in 2010. The victory took her to the final competition in the Bahamas.
“It spurred my public image,” said Harlan of her pageant participation. “It taught me to be on my toes in high school.”
The experience also landed her speaking engagements and helped launch her career in journalism — she did some Web work for a local magazine.
“I would do anything I could get my hands on,” she said.
When it came time to decide which college to attend, Harlan looked at several schools that had broadcasting programs, including Syracuse, but the SEC pulled her in.
“I knew I would be one of hundreds (of journalism students) at Syracuse, (but) at Georgia, I knew I could be right in the trenches as a freshman,” she said.
Now, Harlan has big dreams for the future.
“I would love to be on College Game Day,” she said. “As my career changes, when I am 45, I really want to do morning TV, like ‘The View’ or ‘Live with Kelly and Michael’ … I like morning TV.”
With her fast-paced life traveling to cover games, Harlan has little time for sleep — or much of a social life. But one thing has remained constant.
“My dad and I are extremely close,” she said. “I think I can get better at what I do because of how he helps me.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 6:34 PM.