Kristen Lee "Kris" Budden (born March 9, 1984) is an American sports reporter currently working for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

. Budden is known for reporting on the

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 (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

as well as being a current sideline reporter for college football and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

Background

Born in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, on March 9, 1984, Budden moved with her family at age 10 to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. As a teenager, she

shadowed ''Shadowed'', also known as ''The Gloved Hand'', is a 1946 American film noir crime film directed by John Sturges and starring Anita Louise, Lloyd Corrigan, and Robert Scott. Plot Salesman Fred J. Johnson manages to hit a hole-in-one as he p ...

her godfather at his anchor job at

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

. She attended Trinity Christian Academy, in the Dallas suburb of

Addison Addison may refer to: Places Canada * Addison, Ontario United States *Addison, Alabama *Addison, Illinois *Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois which runs by Wrigley Field * Addison, Kentucky *Addison, Maine *Addison, Michigan *Addison, New York ...

, where she was a two-time state champion with the school's tennis team. She went on to graduate with honors from

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

School of Journalism A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. 'J-School' is an increasingly used term for a journalism department at a school or college. Journalists in most parts of the ...

with a broadcast journalism degree.

Career

Budden's first job was as a weekend sports anchor at

WCAV WCAV (channel 19) is a television station in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group alongside low-power ABC affiliate WVAW-LD (channel 16). Both stations share studios o ...

in Charlottesville, Virginia. Within 18 months, she moved to

WBIR WBIR-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Bill Williams (journalist), Bill Williams Avenue in Knoxville's Belle Morris section, ...

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, to work as both a sports anchor and reporter covering the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

' athletics programs. Over the course of six years, Budden covered the men's and women's

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and SEC basketball tournaments, the 2012 Summer Olympics and Pat Summitt's retirement. At WBIR, Budden received the Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters' award for Best Breaking Sports News and posted four consecutive second-place finishes in the Best Sports Feature category. In August 2013, Budden moved to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, after accepting a position with

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

. She was, at first, a part of the '' Fox NFL'' broadcast crew. In March 2014, she became the sideline reporter for the

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 (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL pennan ...

broadcasts and a fill-in host for the team's pre- and post-game shows. Prior to the 2014 NCAA college football season, she began coverage, mainly as a sideline reporter, for Fox Sports.

Personal life

Budden is married to Mario Toledo, who was a member of the University of Tennessee men's tennis team from 2000 to 2002. They met in 2012, when she took a lesson from him at a Knoxville racquet club. They were married in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 2014. During Budden's career covering the Padres, Toledo got a job as the assistant tennis coach at

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

. The couple then moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and she switched to covering college football.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Budden, Kris 1984 births Living people American television sports announcers American television reporters and correspondents College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters College basketball announcers in the United States National Football League announcers San Diego Padres announcers Sportspeople from Dallas Television personalities from Atlanta Women sports announcers University of Missouri alumni American women television journalists 21st-century American women

Background

Career

Personal life

See also

References