Kathryn Tappen (born April 9, 1981) is an American sportscaster. Tappen works on

NBC Sports Group NBC Sports Group is a division of NBCUniversal that is responsible for NBC Sports' media properties, encompassing the NBC television network's sports division as well as day-to-day operation of the company's sports-oriented cable networks and oth ...

's coverage of the

Notre Dame Football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame S ...

, ''

Football Night in America ''Football Night in America'' (''FNIA''), branded for sponsorship purposes as ''Football Night in America served by Applebee's'', is an American pre-game show that is broadcast on NBC, preceding its broadcasts of Sunday night and postseason Nation ...

'',

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, as well as the

Summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

and

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...

among others.

Early life and education

Tappen was born in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

on April 9, 1981. Growing up, she played youth baseball 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 (appr ...

on boys' teams because there were no teams for girls where she lived. She also played

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and ran cross country. In her senior year of high school at

Villa Walsh Academy Villa Walsh Academy is a private Catholic college preparatory school for girls in seventh through twelfth grades located in Morristown, New Jersey, United States, conducted by the Religious Teachers Filippini. The school is located within the ...

, Tappen focused exclusively on

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and eventually received academic and athletic scholarships to attend

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. At Rutgers, Tappen majored in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

and was a member of the cross-country and track teams until graduating in 2003. She was a four-time

Academic All-American The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

and Big East All Star as a Scarlet Knight.

Career

After starting in

College Sports Television CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television television network, network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Tele ...

, Tappen joined

WJAR WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-ope ...

in Providence, R.I., where she served as both a weekend anchor and weekday sports reporter. From there she moved to

New England Sports Network New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of Boston Red So ...

(NESN), Tappen then joined the NHL Network in 2011 where she hosted ''

NHL Tonight ''NHL Tonight'' (formerly ''NHL on the Fly: Final'') is the flagship show on the NHL Network in Canada and the United States. The show made its debut under its current title in December 2011. It airs nightly at 10:00 pm throughout the NHL seaso ...

'', and subsequently moved to NBC in the summer of 2014. In 2014, Tappen won the "Woman of Inspiration" award presented by the Boston Chapter of Women in Sports and Events. She has been nominated for two

New England Emmy Awards New England Emmy Awards are a division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The division was founded in 1977 and in addition to granting the New England Emmy Awards, it recognizes awards scholarships, honors industry veterans a ...

for sports reporting and won an

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

award in 2006 for her feature ''Swim Meet''.

Personal life

Tappen married former NHL defenseman and coach Jay Leach in July 2009. They divorced in 2014.

References

External links

NBC Sports Group biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tappen, Kathryn 1981 births Living people American television reporters and correspondents Boston Bruins announcers College football announcers National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers Olympic Games broadcasters People from Morristown, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni Television anchors from Boston Women sports announcers