Kelly Ann Crull (born February 16, 1984) is an American sportscaster and television personality, who has been a digital and on-air contributor for the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

, and

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Easte ...

. She has also worked for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

and

NBC Sports Chicago NBC Sports Chicago (formerly Comcast SportsNet Chicago) was an American regional sports network that broadcast regional coverage of professional sports teams in the Chicago Chicago metropolitan area, metropolitan area, as well as college sports ...

Early life

Crull is a native of

Noblesville, Indiana Noblesville is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Indiana, Hamilton County, Indiana, United States, a part of the north Indianapolis suburbs along the White River (Indiana), White River. The population was 69,604 at the 2020 Unite ...

, and attended Noblesville High School, where she played

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. By her junior year, she realized that she was unlikely to play tennis professionally, but wanted to remain involved in sports. Being talkative and outgoing, she decided to pursue a career in sportscasting.

Career

Crull earned a tennis

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

to attend the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, where she studied broadcast journalism. As part of her undergraduate experience, she worked for

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate

KOMU-TV KOMU-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Columbia, Missouri, United States, serving the Columbia–Jefferson City market as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. The station's studios and transmitter are located on US 63 southea ...

, and she also had internships or did work for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, the

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

Bureau in London and

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

NBC affiliate WTHR-TV. Crull graduated in 2006 and began her professional career at

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate

WLFI-TV WLFI-TV (channel 18) is a television station in Lafayette, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Allen Media Group, the station maintains studios on Yeager Road in West Lafayette; its transmitter is located on Co ...

, where she covered the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname ...

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

and

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

. In August 2008, she moved on to

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate KOCO, where she served as the weekend sports anchor and a weekday sports reporter. She also covered the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

and

Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National ...

. Then, she became a sideline reporter for the Oklahoma City Thunder for two seasons from 2010 to 2012. In addition to serving as the Thunder sideline reporter for the

Fox Sports Network Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

, she was host of the Thunder's pre-game show and weekly "Thunder Insider" show. She joined

Fox Sports San Diego Bally Sports San Diego was an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between Diamond Sports Group (itself a 50-50 joint venture between the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios), and operated as an affiliate of B ...

in February 2013, serving as a beat reporter and hosting the "Padres Weekly" show. She also served as the backup sideline reporter (to primary sideline reporter

Laura Rutledge Laura Rutledge (née McKeeman; born October 2, 1988) is an American reporter and host for ESPN and the SEC Network. She is an American beauty pageant titleholder from St. Petersburg, Florida, who was named Miss Florida 2012. Biography She won th ...

) for the

. While a reporter for Fox, it became a tradition to drench Crull with gallons of liquid when the Padres had a walk-off victory. Following the 2013 MLB season, she joined

. In Chicago, she served as the

beat reporter. She covered the Chicago Cubs World Series run in 2016. In February 2018, she co-hosted the sports trivia show ''

Beer Money "Beer Money" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Kip Moore. It was released in July 2012 as his third single from his debut album '' Up All Night'' (2012). Moore wrote the song with Blair Daly and Troy Verges. The son ...

'' for its 100th episode. For the 2018–19 season, Crull served as the

sideline reporter for the network. In 2020, Crull joined

Bally Sports South FanDuel Sports Network South is an American regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate of FanDuel Sports Network. The network carries regional coverage of professional ...

and

Bally Sports Southeast FanDuel Sports Network Southeast is an American regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate of FanDuel Sports Network. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the channel br ...

to cover the

. In 2022, Crull worked as a field reporter for ''

Major League Baseball on TBS ''MLB on TBS'' is an American presentation of regular season and postseason Major League Baseball (MLB) game telecasts that air on the American pay television network TBS and the streaming service Max. The games are produced by TNT Sports (form ...

''. Crull's contract with Bally expired before the 2024 Major League Baseball season.

References

External links

*
Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crull, Kelly American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters Missouri Tigers women's tennis players NBA broadcasters People from Indianapolis Chicago Cubs announcers San Diego Padres announcers Oklahoma City Thunder announcers University of Missouri alumni American women sports commentators People from Noblesville, Indiana 1984 births