IOWA CITY, Iowa (Iowa Sports Info KVOX AM) --Long-time intercollegiate athletics administrator Gene Taylor has been selected as the deputy director for the intercollegiate athletics program at the University of Iowa. Taylor will remain the athletic director at North Dakota State through the month of July.
Taylor has worked in athletics administration for more than 28 years and is currently the director of athletics at North Dakota State University where he guided NDSU through the transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I. During his 13 years as athletics director, NDSU has produced 64 CoSIDA Academic All-America® awards, three NCAA Woman of the Year nominees, four NCAA Championships Elite 89 student-athletes, and 18 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners.
Taylor has engineered double-digit growth in NDSU’s development efforts and triple-digit growth in its corporate partners program. He is currently overseeing a $41 million capital campaign for renovation of NDSU’s basketball arena, administration offices, locker rooms, and indoor track and field facility. NDSU recently completed a $3.5 million renovation of its football administrative space and locker room complex. Competitively, NDSU has won the last three national championships at the Football Championship Subdivision level of play, achieved a 7-3 record over Football Bowl Subdivision teams – a record that includes four wins over Bowl Championship Series opponents. NDSU has won 57 conference championships since 2007-08, a total that includes nine championships in 2013-14. The 2013-14 NDSU men’s basketball team posted a 26-7 record, won the Summit League regular season and post-season tournament championships, and advanced to the third round of the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament by beating Oklahoma. NDSU’s volleyball and softball teams have also been regular participants in NCAA post-season competition with softball advancing to the 2009 Super Regional.
Taylor was recruited to North Dakota State from the United States Naval Academy where he began his career in 1986 as an administrative assistant for business. He held several positions in the ticket office and ticket and business operations before serving as assistant athletics director for internal operations, a position which included responsibility over the department budget, supervision of eight sport programs, coordination of football team travel, and event management.
“Gene Taylor is highly respected across the country and has been a leader in college athletics for more than quarter of a century. He shares the values of Iowa and will comfortably fit the Hawkeye culture,” said Gary Barta, the UI’s director of athletics. As the deputy director of athletics – a new position at the UI but a fixture at many of the UI’s peer institutions nationally – Taylor will be responsible for administrative oversight for the athletic department’s day-to-day operations. He will also supervise of select UI sports programs and will serve as the primary departmental decision-maker in the absence of the director. More specifically, Taylor will serve as the primary advisor to the director of athletics, oversee implementation of the department’s strategic plan, provide vision and leadership in the formulation and implementation of departmental policy, and will oversee the department’s financial, information technology, and human resources operations. He will serve as a member of the department’s senior management team that provides strategic leadership and direction to the UI’s 24 sports programs. The hiring of Taylor comes on the heels of the retirement of Mark Abbott, a long-time member of the senior staff. Abbott’s retirement is the first of several that will involve a member of the department’s senior staff in the immediate future.
Taylor, 56, earned a bachelor of science degree in business management from Arizona State University in 1980. He earned a master of science degree in sports administration from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida, in 1985. Gene and his wife, Cathy, will celebrate their 20thwedding anniversary on July 2. Cathy received a bachelor of science degree in special education from Slippery Rock University. The couple have two children: daughter Casey, 19, is a sophomore at North Dakota State majoring in sports management. She is a manager for the men’s basketball team. Son Jared, 16, will be a sophomore in high school.