#MizzouMadeMonday: Kelly Crull
7/16/2018 11:45:00 AM | General, Tennis
Former Tennis standout has used her Mizzou Journalism degree to pursue her dream job
As an on-air talent, Kelly Crull is a recognizable face to many. Her career has included stops in San Diego and Oklahoma City, covering the Padres and Thunder. She is now the primary beat reporter for the world-champion Chicago Cubs on NBC Sports Chicago. Kelly was fortunate to be covering the Cubs when they won their curse-breaking World Series Championship in 2016.
"That was the pinnacle of my career to this date and I think there was an emotional moment for me well beyond the following of this team of players I respected, players I watched earn this championship, the first in 108 years." Despite now covering the Chicago Cubs, her career began here in Columbia, as a student-athlete at Mizzou.
From Noblesville, Indiana, Crull joined the Mizzou women's tennis team in 2002 as a freshman and helped them to a 14-5 record, a seventh place finish in the Big 12, and a spot in the NCAA Regional Championships. The team's best finish in over two decades.
"With tennis, I got to be part of one of the first teams that ever went to the NCAA Tournament. That was a huge, monumental, historical event for us. Those teammates to this day are still some of my very best friends. That's what you remember the most, the friendships, the goofy bus rides, the songs that you sing and the cheers that you come up with and representing such a phenomenal university in the process."
Over her four year career Mizzou tennis compiled a record of 53-32, finishing as high as fifth in the Big 12 in the 2003-2004 season. Kelly also earned First Team Academic All-Big 12 her Senior Year. Embodying the term "student-athlete," Kelly holds a degree from the nationally recognized Missouri School of Journalism.
Kelly made the most of her four years in Columbia as she not only balanced tennis and her journalism major, but also Greek life.
"When I came here to Mizzou, I don't know what I would have done with myself if all I had done is go to class and come back. Instead, I was on the tennis courts continuing to further that journey as an athlete, and grow into a person well beyond the athlete that I always wanted to be, because of the way journalism here pushed you."
As one can imagine, Kelly's daily schedule started early, ended late, and consumed almost every minute of the day. On some days, her alarm would ring at 3 a.m. and she would head to KOMU to prepare for a morning sportscast. At 6 a.m. she would deliver the sports and by 7 a.m. she would arrive at the tennis facility for a morning workout. At 8 a.m. she was in class and that was just the beginning of the day.
"From there I went to class and by noon, I was hoping to run into the sorority house and get some food, get back out to the tennis facility and start practice. Practice wraps up at 6 p.m., then more lifting, I get home at 7 or 8 p.m. and try to have dinner with my roommates and see them for a hot second, maybe talk to my parents, do homework and then I'm going to bed."
Maintaining a near impossible schedule was only doable with the help of many people in the athletic department and beyond.
"For me, it was listening to a couple of women tell me that it's important to compartmentalize and set goals and each day be able to cross off this checklist, so that you can remain organized." Her experience at Mizzou taught her many lessons, and those have, "now carried over into everything that I do on a daily basis – needing to have interviews done, and this done and this done and you are working on deadlines constantly."
As a student-athlete, Mizzou gave Kelly the tools and resources necessary to build a foundation for her career. Now as an accomplished alumnus, Kelly is enjoying the results of her hard work.
"I think other programs look at us and say 'well, another Mizzou person' and that's a good thing. What that is, it's called a dynasty because they get sick of hearing about it because there are so many of us coming out of the program doing incredible things across the board, from television, to writing, to radio to nowadays social platforms for all aspects."
The breadth of Mizzou connections is well known and, being both an athlete and J-School graduate, Kelly has experienced this first hand.
"To this day, I run into so many Mizzou alumni in the field. It's really cool. In fact, I was at a Cubs-Cardinals game in St. Louis and there were about five or six of us from all different generations. I just thought that was so cool because it was all different spectrums, but it was all because we came out of Missouri's journalism program and were so prepared and willing to reach out and help one another along the way."
In addition to her accomplishments as a member of the tennis team, Kelly's experience at Mizzou helped to shape her as a person and vaulted her into a career full of success.
"I have to start with the four years I was here (Mizzou), and it will sound cliché, but it was honestly the best four years of my life. It started with the balance between having tennis and having journalism, which here at this school is so demanding but for good reason."
Enjoying a career built on the foundation of her time at Mizzou, Kelly Crull exemplifies what it means to be #MizzouMade.
What does it mean to be #MizzouMade? That moniker has been a staple for Mizzou student-athletes for years. It is often associated with athletes who have excelled at the highest levels of their respective sports, but the true meaning runs much deeper. While there are certainly examples of former Tigers excelling in professional athletics, there is a much larger contingent of Mizzou student-athletes thriving in today's fast-paced, competitive work environment. What each of those student-athletes learned at Mizzou has prepared them for life beyond sports. The mission of Mizzou Athletics remains to prepare champions for life through a personal enhancement model that emphasizes academic and athletic excellence, social responsibility, career development and leadership in order to help each student athlete become a prepared professional in any field upon earning their degree. #MizzouMade Monday aims to tell those stories of student athletes who are bringing those values and ideals of Mizzou into the real world every day.
