Gene Taylor
Gene Taylor was named the Director of Athletics at K-State in April 2017, and in two short years under his leadership, the Wildcats have recorded championship performances on the field and in the classroom.
As Athletics Director at North Dakota State, Taylor immediately spearheaded a comprehensive evaluation of the Bison athletic department in 2001, all while successfully guiding the athletics program through the unpredictable waters of reclassification to NCAA Division I from Division II and securing conference affiliations for all 16 sports. The Bison are currently members of The Summit League, Missouri Valley Football Conference and the Big 12 Conference (wrestling).
Taylor also played an instrumental part of forming the Great West Football Conference in February 2004, an affiliation that gave the Bison football program an immediate home in Division I.
In 2014, Taylor accepted the role of deputy athletics director at Iowa where he has been responsible for the administrative oversight of the department’s day-to-day operations while also serving as the leading advisor to the Director of Athletics and the primary decision maker in his absence.
A student assistant to the associate athletics director in his undergraduate days at Arizona State University, Taylor arrived at NDSU after a 15-year stint at Navy (1986-2001) as an administrative assistant, assistant ticket manager, ticket manager, assistant athletic director for tickets and operations, and associate athletic director.
Taylor is a 1980 business management graduate of Arizona State, and he received his master’s degree in sports administration in 1985 from St. Thomas University in Florida.
He worked in the ticket office at Southern Methodist University in 1985-86 before joining the Naval Academy. His tenure at Navy included serving as the commissioner of the five-team Collegiate Sprint Football League that includes Army, Navy, Penn, Princeton and Cornell.
Taylor and his wife, Cathy, have one daughter, Casey, and a son, Jared. Casey graduated from North Dakota State with a degree in sports management and works in the Minnesota Athletics Department, while Jared attends Northern State University in South Dakota where he plays football.
