March Madness Q&A: Kevin Harlan talks about Marquette ties, Al McGuire and broadcast prep

Kevin Harlan will be on the play-by-play call for TBS when the Marquette men's basketball team takes on Western Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Indianapolis.

Most sports fans in Wisconsin know about Harlan's state ties. His father, Bob, is chairman emeritus of the Green Bay Packers and his daughter Olivia Harlan Dekker, a broadcaster in her own right, is married to former Wisconsin Badgers basketball star Sam Dekker. Kevin Harlan became interested in broadcasting while growing up in Green Bay.

Harlan's link to MU is often overlooked. He talked about that on Tuesday in a Q&A with the Journal Sentinel.

Q: Everyone thinks of your dad as the Packers guy. But I don't think a lot of people remember he got his start at Marquette as a sports information director. Did you guys ever talk about that?

Harlan: Oh my gosh, yeah. Marquette gave him a rocking chair one time that had 'Marquette' on the headboard. I briefly looked at Marquette, and I remember my dad walking me through his process when he was going from a all-boys Catholic school in Des Moines and was looking for a school to go to. Marquette at the time had one of the best journalism programs in the country. That's why he chose it. He wanted to become a sportswriter and went there and eventually was the sports editor of the student newspaper.

I think at the time I was looking at schools, it maybe didn't have that rating as when he was looking at schools. But nonetheless it was always on our radar growing up. He's incredibly proud of it. His first job was at UPI, but he wouldn't have gotten that job, as he said many times, had he not had the Marquette degree. Then went on to become the sports information director and crossed paths with Al McGuire his first year or second year at Marquette.

Q. Does he have a go-to story about Al McGuire?

Harlan: I think he just felt like he was a real character. And that would really appeal to my dad, who loves people like that. He has always gravitated to people that are out of the ordinary and Al was certainly a larger-than-life person in every thing that he did.

I remember that when we were in either grade school or high school, I'm thinking high school, Al McGuire, who remembered my dad and stayed friendly, came up on his motorcycle to Green Bay to watch a day of training camp. We stood and talked with him in Lambeau Field's parking lot. He brought us a couple of t-shirts, actually, for me and my brother Bryan. I remember like it was yesterday how gregarious he was. He just looked like a regular guy, had the sunglasses on, the hair swept back, just riding his Harley up from Milwaukee to watch a day of Packer practice. And my dad met him, yeah, they had a friendship.

And then fast forward to Al's second-to-last game ever doing TV (in 2000). I broadcast that game with him from Michigan State. And the very last game he did for CBS was a reunion of him and (Dick) Enberg and Billy Packer. I did the game right before on CBS with Al McGuire. One of the true highlights I had calling college basketball for CBS.

Q. Marquette had some classic teams in the 1970s, when you were growing up in Green Bay. Did you follow the team closely?

Harlan: A lot. Because my dad did. I remember just how good they were. At the time, I was getting interested in broadcasting. I was like 13, 14, 15 years old in the mid-70s and that's when I began broadcasting, not just in my room, but when I got to high school I had a radio station, so I would take particular interest in games. Clearly, Marquette was on national TV quite a bit. They were a terrific team with (Bo) Ellis and Butch Lee. I paid a lot of attention to them then because my interest in broadcasting and certainly sports was at an all-time high as I was looking into that. I paid particular attention to Enberg, who was calling those games. I just remember the championship win (in 1977) and Hank Raymonds by (Al McGuire's) side. My dad, having been an alum, it meant even more.

Q. This is your first time calling a Marquette game this season. You're busy with the NFL and NBA the last couple of months. How do you dive in and familiarize yourself with the team?

Harlan: We found out late Sunday night. I was coming back from the A-10 championship that I had broadcast for CBS earlier in the day. As I was changing planes in O'Hare, got word what our first and second rounds would look like. So I began preparing on my flight home to Kansas City. And began to type out my boards, my spotting boards and information boards. Polished them off yesterday so I could print them. Now today I'm beginning to delve into each team and writing notes from each individual kids' biography from each team. We got two teams playing in Dayton (for the First Four), so I only have six teams in front of me but I'll learn the other two teams tomorrow night after they play in Dayton.

So, yeah, just digging into Marquette a little bit for the first time. I actually did them in the Final Four with Dwyane Wade and Coach (Tom) Crean. I did them for CBS Radio and Westwood One. That was a thrill doing them then and I look forward to doing them here in a couple days in Indianapolis.

Q. You live part of the year in Door County. What keeps you coming back to Wisconsin?

Harlan: Well, my mom and my dad are still in great health and doing so well in their mid-80s and late-80s. So it's a chance to be around them on a more full-time basis. I grew up in the state. That is my adopted home state. I was born in Wauwatosa. I grew up my first five years in Milwaukee when my dad was the SID at Marquette. And then we moved back to Wisconsin when I was 10 from St. Louis. My hometown is Green Bay. My dad went to Marquette. I thought seriously of going to the University of Wisconsin and, of course, I was a ball boy for the Packers and grew up in the press box at Lambeau Field. So all those attachments are there.

Then, on a personal note, we began as a family - we have four children, three girls and a boy and my son is named after my dad - but we began going up there when the kids were just babies. Because I had my summers off. I was off with my schedule, and my wife said, when we were early in marriage, 'We should look at spending our summers up there. It's so beautiful and it would be such a great experience for the family to just be together and enjoy the wonders of the state.' So we began doing it back in the 1990s and eventually bought up there and spent every summer of our kids' lives there. I believe our oldest was six or seven when we started going up there. Now they're in their 30s and have families of their own. Now they come up with their families and spend a good chunk of the summer. Our three daughters were married in the state of Wisconsin. Our last girl was married this past summer. We spend five or six months of the year up there. It's an incredibly special place in our hearts.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kevin Harlan will call Marquette's NCAA Tournament game on TBS