Cris Collinsworth family tree: Meet wife Holly, Notre Dame captain son Austin, broadcaster son Jac and more

Daniel Chavkin

Cris Collinsworth family tree: Meet wife Holly, Notre Dame captain son Austin, broadcaster son Jac and more image

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Cris Collinsworth has been in the public eye for most of his life now, first as a wide receiver for the Bengals then as a prominent NFL broadcaster.

Collinsworth's success in sports is not much of a surprise, considering he comes from an athletic family. The broadcaster's successful career also served as a model for his kids, some of whom followed in his footsteps in their own careers.

Here's a breakdown of Collinsworth's family and the people who most impacted the former wide receier.

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Cris Collinsworth wife: Holly Bankemper Collinsworth

Collinsworth and his wife, Holly Bankemper Collinsworth, both attended the University of Cincinnati at one point in their college careers. At first, Holly attended the University of Kentucky as an undergrad, where she was also a cheerleader, but went to law school at the University of Cincinnati.

Holly became a General Practice lawyer in her career based out of Kentucky. She and Cris married in 1989, a year after Cris retired,  and the couple have four kids together.

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Cris Collinsworth sons

Austin Collinsworth

Austin is Cris Collinsworth's older son who played football at Notre Dame from 2010 to 2014. As a safety and kick returner, Austin played in 44 games and produced 81 total tackles, three interceptions, one fumble recovery with eight kick returns for 178 yards.

Since graduating, Austin has joined Cris at Pro Football Focus, where he currently works as the Chief Operating Officer.

Jac Collinsworth

Jac Collinsworth was born in February of 1995 and currently has a career in the sports media industry.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 2017, Jac has worked for both NBC and ESPN. Most recently he served as a play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame football games on NBC in 2022 and 2023, and he frequently appears o "Football Night in America" for NBC ahead of "Sunday Night Football."

In 2016, Jac described what it was like to grow up with his father being a famous sports broadcaster.

"I've never seen anybody work as hard as him. He's up at six. When he works out, he's studying tape. When he eats lunch, he's studying tape," Jac said. "People ask me, 'Is it weird that your Dad is on TV?' And I say, 'No, because really he's always been on TV.' To me, he's just a normal guy. He's always just been Dad to me. But he is running out of shelves for all the Emmys!"

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Cris Collinsworth daughters

Katie Collinsworth Hughes

Katie Collinsworth Hughes, Cris's oldest child, is also in the television, albeit on the production side. After graduating from the University of Florida, she worked at CBS before joining her father at NBC in a variety of roles for the Golf Channel and the network's Olympics coverage.

Collinsworth Hughes is married with five kids and currently lives in Orlando, Florida.

Ashley Collinsworth Briley

Cris's youngest daughter is Ashley Collinsworth Briley, who attended Harvard to run track.  Initially, she was interested in dance as a kid, but later took up track and field in high school, and Cris became her school's track-and-field coach,

"I did it really just to be around her," he said, via The Harvard Crimson. "Obviously I was traveling and [announcing] games during the season; all I wanted to do was just hang around the kids."

While Cris was widely known due to his work on television, it never impacted his parenting ability.

"He was always just a father to me," Ashley said in 2012, via The Harvard Crimson. "He was always there, he was always the coach of all our teams, he was just like a normal dad."

Ashley got married to her husband, Jared, in November of 2023, and they had their first kid together in 2024.

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Cris Collinsworth dad: Abe Collinsworth

Before Cris became an NBA star, his father was an athlete in his own right. Abe Collinsworth was a high school basketball star who got to play college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp.

Abe won the National Championship at Kentucky in 1958, playing 15 games and averaging 1.5 points per game that season. He also went by his middle name, Lincoln, at the time, but Rupp started calling him Abe.

Collinsworth became an educator in his career, as he was the principal at Titusville Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida, which is where his sons went to school. In his time as an educator, Abe was a teacher, coach, counselor, vice principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent, all coming in Brevard County, Florida. He retired in 1994.

Abe Collinsworth passed away in 2012, and Cris was able to explain on "Sunday Night Football" how much his father meant to him.

"My hero, man," Cris said. "He was something special…passed away early in the morning on Saturday morning…was able to be there with him. Former national champion of the UK Wildcats, played basketball for Adolph Rupp. Was the principal of my high school, and I used to tell him I loved reading about him on the bathroom walls. And he'd get a laugh out of it. Was self-deprecating with his humor…always was. He was the mayor. Everywhere he went he was loved."

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Cris Collinsworth mom: Donetta Browning Collinsworth

Collinsworth's parents met while they were attending college at Kentucky together. Donetta Browning was originally from Logan, West Virginia, and became an educator along with her husband after graduating college.

After moving to Eau Gallie, Florida with her family, Browning became a stay-at-home mother to her sons while Abe worked as the principal at their school. After her husband retired, they moved to Orlando to be closer to their other son, Greg.

Donetta died in 2023 at the age of 86.

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Cris Collinsworth brother: Greg Collinsworth

Collinsworth had one sibling, a younger brother named Greg who played college basketball at Florida State. From 1978 to 1981, Greg played 26 games for the Seminoles as a backup, averaging 1.0 point per game.

Greg died in 2004 after a year-long battle with colon cancer. He never had any kids, but he was extremely close with his brother throughout his life.

"We were everything together. We've always sort of felt our family lived under a lucky star. But you spend a year and a half praying for him to live and the last two weeks praying for him to die." Collinsworth once told The Gainesville Sun. "Literally, one of the last things I ever did with him was to go up to him and he was in bed, and I said, 'It's OK, man. You can go. Don’t fight this anymore.' And he died the next day."

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Where is Cris Collinsworth from?

Collinsworth was born in Ohio but grew up in Titusville, Florida, where he played high school football. He returned to Ohio to play college football at the University of Cincinnati, and stayed in Cincinnati when he played his entire career with the Bengals.

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Daniel Chavkin

Daniel Chavkin is a Digital Content Producer for The Sporting News. A 2018 graduate from the University of Maryland, he has previously written for Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports and NFLTradeRumors.com.