Wisconsin-tied Harlan family will make Super Bowl broadcasting history Sunday
JR Radcliffe
Kevin Harlan and daughter Olivia Harlan Dekker will become the first father-daughter duo to call a Super Bowl on Sunday when both take the mic for separate broadcasts of the game, according to the Associated Press.
Harlan Dekker, 30, who's married to former University of Wisconsin basketball star Sam Dekker — now playing basketball for the London Lions — will be part of the broadcast team for Sky Sports, which will broadcast the game to the United Kingdom and Ireland. Harlan Dekker also works for Westwood One Radio, covering the NFL and NCAA in a variety of capacities.
Her father, meanwhile, who also happens to be the son of Green Bay Packers chairman emeritus Bob Harlan, is approaching 40 seasons as a play-by-play announcer in the NFL. He has been the lead voice for Westwood One Radio and will call the Super Bowl for a 14th straight year. Harlan is a fixture on NFL and NBA broadcasts, including CBS NFL games and Packers preseason games.
“You think of it like the accolades of your career that will end up meaning anything, when all of this is said and done and something you’ll tell grandchildren about and that they’ll tell grandchildren about, and that’s really something to be proud of generationally,” Harlan Dekker said to writer Rob Maaddi. “No one will care about the midseason games you work or how many seasons you even work. But everyone will remember this in our family. So it means the world to me and to make history doing it. I like to think that there’s some little girl out there that is going to catch wind of this story in some way, and just think: ‘I never thought of that.’”
Kevin Harlan, 63, just earned a National Sportscaster of the Year award in January and announced his 500th NFL game during the 2023 season. He's a graduate of what is now Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay.
In 2018, Kevin and Olivia became the first father-daughter team to call any NFL game when the Packers hosted the 49ers.
Harlan will call the Super Bowl LVIII with analyst Kurt Warner for Westwood One, plus Gene Steratore, Laura Okmin and Mike Golic.
Harlan Dekker will be part of the Sky Sports team with Neil Reynolds, Phoebe Schecter, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Christian Wilkins.