Kevin Harlan, daughter Olivia Harlan Dekker will fulfill dream at Super Bowl

Olivia Harlan Dekker’s desire to follow in her famous father’s steps took root when she was at Shawnee Mission East High School roughly 15 years ago.

Kevin Harlan had established himself as a top sports broadcaster, first as the Chiefs radio voice then with Fox Sports and at CBS. If your desire is to join the broadcast world, who better to learn from than dear ol’ dad?

That’s what Olivia realized.

“When I started getting serious about wanting to get in this business, I was probably around 15, going to East, I started doing some like local magazine online hits, and I’d show my dad, you know, what do you think about this?” she said. “And he would start kind of coaching me up because he knew I was starting to take it pretty seriously. And he’s like, ‘If I’m going to support you doing this, I want you to do it the right way.’

“And I told him, ‘My goal, Dad, can you imagine, if I was doing a Super Bowl and you were doing a Super Bowl and all that? He said, ‘Yeah, I can imagine that, 100%.’ And so it’s pretty incredible that now here we are. He’s been like my coach.”

On Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, Harlan will call his 14th consecutive Super Bowl while working for Westwood One.

Harlan Dekker will be working as a sideline reporter for Sky Sports after briefly pondering retirement.

Even though she’s only 30 years old, Harlan Dekker moved to London when her husband, Sam Dekker, began playing for the London Lions basketball team. Harlan Dekker had done work for ESPN, CBS and Fox Sports, but thought she’d have to put that aside.

Instead of stepping away, she’s become involved in NFL coverage for Sky Sports. Harlan Dekker has worked this season’s NFL international games in Europe, including the Chiefs-Dolphins game in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I’ve grown up in the NFL. My grandpa worked for the Packers for years and then my dad,” said Harlan Dekker, whose grandfather Bob was a Packers executive for two decades.

“All I know is the NFL, and I’m in a place that they have this big hunger for it now and they love it. I feel like on one hand, the fans, they’re educated. they’re really good fans. But then other people, it’s new for them. so you’re kind of educating about the sport. So the way I talk about the sport would be different than the way I talk about it in the States. It’s just great, I love being a part of it.”

And now she’ll be a part of Super Bowl LVIII with her father. The two plan a quiet dinner Saturday night before both go to work the next day to call the Chiefs-49ers game.

Perhaps they’ll talk of the days when Harlan Dekker walked that halls at Shawnee Mission East and envisioned becoming a sports broadcaster.

“I think what’s gotten me here is him always solidifying that dream and saying, ‘Of course I can see it. You should do it. Just keep working.’” she said of her father. “And so it’s pretty cool that here we are.”