Allie Clifton

Biography

Allie Clifton is a TV sports personality, known for her association with the basketball game, she is a former college basketball player.

Family- Childhood

Allie Clifton was born on 30th January 1988 in Van Wert, Ohio, United States to Bill Clifton(Father) a baseball coach & Kim Clifton(Mother).

Her father was an educator in school for 40+ years [4]

She has older sister in Abbie Clifton Barker,  Abbie was also a basketball player and played for the Northwestern Ohio University.

She has a younger brother in Corey Clifton.

[Allie Clifton's parents: Father Bill and Mother Kim]

Sports Family: Her father played football at Wooster, Her mom played basketball at Ohio Lima, her sister Abby played at Central Michigan, her brother played basketball at St. Joe's.

[Clifton Siblings: Abbie, Allie and Corey]

Education

• Van Wert High School: She attended the public high school in Van Wert, Ohio
• Bachelor's degree in Education: She was enrolled in a Bachelor's degree in Education at the University of Toledo, but discontinued it after three and a half years, she realized being an educator was not for her. [4]
• Bachelor's Degree in Sports Analysis and Communications: She had an interesting conversation on the beach with a Southern female sports caster, it changed her, she switched her major, she completed her graduation in 2010 with major in Sports Analysis and Communications. [4]
• Master's degree: She mastered in 2011-2012 with major in Liberal Studies (again at the Toledo). She did her thesis on "women in sports casters and their struggle for equality". She interviewed six women sports casters as a part of the thesis- Robin Roberts, LaChina Robinson, Steffy White and others.

Apart from her graduation and masters, she also has a Diploma.

Athlete

Allie's interest in sports started at the young age of 6 when she competed in swimming competitions for local YMCA, it was there as well where she started her basketball career, she was the only girl in the group at that time.

She continued practicing swimming till the 7th grade, she chose basketball over swimming in the 7th grade.

Basketball

She played basketball for her university team (Toledo Rockets women's Team) when in college from 2006 to 2010.

While playing for her university team she scored in double digits in more than 40 matches. She was captain for 3 years out of 4.

She was a co-captain in more than 25 matches. She usually played in the wing position. She was Ohio division 2 player of the year in 2006. she prides herself in being versatile on the floor. [4]

Toledo Rockets women's basketball: She played for her college basketball team from 2006-2010

Marriage

She is married to Jason Kalsow

Trivia: The reception was a three hour affair, so they added glow sticks to the scene, to make it look good for the photos, apparently the kids at the wedding loved it. they had necklaces and bracelets made of glow sticks. [2]

Career

Allie's first broadcasting job was at BCSN, a local sports network. She was still in college at the time and thought the job would be easier as she herself is a basketball player. It gave her a reality check, that she needed to be a lot more for her to call the game. 

She continued her broadcasting career in Toledo after college, as a sports reporter for ABC affiliate WTVG channel 13.

Cleveland Cavaliers

She is associated with the basketball team 'Cleveland Cavaliers' as the associate reporter of the team. She served as a Cleveland Cavaliers sideline reporter for Fox Sports Ohio. She joined them in 2012

In 2018 she won Lower Great Lakes Emmy Award as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers broadcast team.

Road Trippin

Her interviews & analysis on the road with two Cavs players- Richard Jefferson & Channing Frye have been popular. It was started in 2017 and also included live podcast sometimes. [2]

Lakers Studio Host

She hosts pregame telecast of Los Angeles Lakers games on Spectrum SportsNet. She is present with the team all the time, she rarely misses even the practice sessions. 

Trivia: Lebron James also left Cavs and joined Lakers approximately around the same time as she did. [3]

Allie became the first woman ever to call a Lakers game on 14th February 2024 on Spectrum SportsNet, with Bill Macdonald as the play-by-play announcer.

She has interviewed celebrities like Lebron James, Khloe Kardashian, Kyrie Irving, Tyler Zeller.

Interesting Facts & Trivia

• She was the first female athlete in High School history to garner all state honors
• She occasionally comments on baseball & Hockey as well.
• Allie has a closet & Boutique on Poshmark.
• Madeline- She wanted to change her name to Madeline when she was in middle school.
• She was a Dunkin Donuts Ambassador in Cleveland.
• She has worked with-
  • Fox Sports Ohio
  • Channel 13(WTVG)
  • Channel 13(WTOL)
  • BuckEye Cable sports network
• She has attended-
  • OHSAA Student leadership conference
  • OHSAA 2016 Girls State Basketball Tournament
• She has a dog named Wren
• Fishing: She is a fishing enthusiast. Her family grew up near a like, where shew learned Bass fishing, catching blue gills. Her family (father, brother, uncles) goes to Canada for fishing every year, where they catch fishes for a week, and use it for an year. She and everyone in her family has eaten a (fishing) worm at some stage, as a bet. [2]
• Emmy's: She didn't attend the Emmy award ceremony that she won in 2018. She was watching the event live from Facebook, she cried watching her name announced as the winner. she wasn't expecting to win. She has won multiple Emmys now. [3]
• Lebron James followed her on Instagram for some time, he went on a unfollowing spree and unfollowed most people some time later, he unfollowed Allie too. [3]
• One of her biggest sports dreams was to swim in the Olympics [4]
• Early Years of broadcasting: Allie was a champion at basketball herself, she is very hardworking and delivers her well researched content real smooth. But the early years didn't go smoothly even for her. On her very first gig of broadcasting, she walked off the Camera. She has been hit on the head with a basketball while live on TV. She got team names confused one time, she said a jumbledup  word on live TV, which some speculated to be an obscene word. [4]

Controversy

In 2014 Tristan Thompson the forward of Cleveland Cavaliers kissed Allie on her head and called her Tina in a very friendly way, some commentators called it unprofessional, however Allie clarified in tweet that it was an inside joke & no big deal and they have a good work relationship.

She was covering the Lakers huddle, she meant to say "based off of my observation" but mid sentence changed the line of thought, words got jumbled and multiple words got mixed into one, some people on social media started saying she said "mast**bation", she had to deactivate her social media handles for a couple of days to stop the incessant flowof messages and tagging. [3]

Q & A

• Book she likes and recommends.
  • Subtle Art of not giving a f**k ("Everyone should read the book cover to cover" said Allie during an interview) [3]
•  Life Motto 
  • Finding comfort in the uncomfortable. [4]

Awards & Recognitions

• She was Ohio division 2 player of the year in 2006
• Chuck Ealey Undefeated Spirit Award: She is the recipient of 'Chuck Ealey Undefeated Spirit Award'
• She has won Emmy award in 2014 for her broadcasting & Commenting

Quotes

• On the day before my final semester I realized I can't be a teacher, kudos to those who can, I changed my major & got into sports broadcasting.
• Just enjoy wherever you are now.
• Being back in the basketball atmosphere, working in the NBA level is a dream come true for me.
• My parents said- If I ever brought a boy into my room lights had to be on.
• Expect nothing. Appreciate everything.
• Work hard. Be humble
• As a competitor way to measure success is to win.
• My mom and Dad have taught us that... 'giving your all'..  'bring your A game' and let's see what its about, and that goes for every single thing I do [3]
• You cannot be too prepared, there is no such thing. You can have prepared so much that you only use 10% of your information, but the feeling of going into a situation unprepared is one of the worst feeligns you can have as a professional. [4]
• If you are someone that wants to constantly grow and evolve, being satisfied and thinking your way is the only way... is just not my way of thinking. [4]

Sources

1. Allie Clifton on wikipedia
2. Allie Clifton interview with Sports Northwest
3. Allie Clifton with Driving Cleveland
4. Allie Clifton on The Daily Kelsey Show
5.