You may have seen Olivia Dekker working the sidelines for ESPN as a college football reporter.
And you've probably seen and heard her father, Kevin Harlan, announce pro football or basketball. Maybe from his time as the original radio voice of the Timberwolves ... or his work doing NFL games for CBS and NBA games for Turner. (His Wolves background, doing the games here from the franchises' inception in 1989 through 1998, sort of qualifies him for One of Us status.)
It's cool enough that daughter has followed father into sports broadcasting.
It's even better than Harlan and Dekker will work together Monday night on the radio broadcast of the Monday Night Football game between Green Bay and San Francisco. (Adding to the equation is that Harlan's father held general manager and team president titles with the Packers before retiring in 2007.)
Radio Ink, an industry trade web site, quoted Dekker as saying: "My Dad is my greatest coach, but I've learned the most just by watching him with admiring eyes my whole life. His perpetual drive to improve at his craft, the thorough preparation for every game, and the class and professionalism that he's known for are the gold standard."
Harlan said, "It's probably every parent's dream to someday get a chance to work side-by-side with their child. The fact that this will be at Lambeau Field where Olivia's grandfather ran the Green Bay Packers for more than two decades, and where she used to play as a little girl and attended many games growing up, makes it even more special."
One thing, though. Dekker pretty much lost her One of Us status a couple of years ago when she married Sam Dekker, the former Wisconsin Badgers basketball star who now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
