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The last three years could go down as one of the most successful periods in K-State Athletics history as Gene Taylor’s program has taken the college athletics world by storm. Team championships, postseason runs, record crowds, continued academic success and new facility enhancements have all been the cornerstone of recent Wildcat success.

Named Director of Athletics at K-State in April 2017, Taylor has guided the football program to six bowl appearances and a Big 12 Championship, men’s basketball to a Big 12 Championship and Elite Eight, baseball to a Super Regional, and women’s track and field to back-to-back Big 12 Outdoor championships.

Additionally, Taylor and his staff have fundraised and implemented a department-wide facility master plan that benefits all Wildcat teams including the newly completed Indoor Track and Field Complex, the Morgan Family Arena for volleyball, Morris Family Olympic Training Center and the Shamrock Practice Facility for football.

A former member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee and current member of the LEAD1 Board of Directors, Taylor was named the 2022-23 Cushman & Wakefield FBS AD of the Year. He is a 1980 business management graduate of Arizona State and earned his master’s degree in sports administration in 1985 from St. Thomas University in Florida. Taylor and his wife, Cathy, have two children, Casey and Jared.

DR. FRANK TRACZ is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Kansas State University. He earned his B.M.E. from The Ohio State University, the M.M. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He has public school teaching experience in Wisconsin and Ohio and has also served as Assistant Director of bands at Syracuse University and Director of bands at Morehead State University. Dr. Tracz has served as an adjudicator, clinician, speaker in various schools and conferences and has conducted All-State and Honor bands across the United States as well as in Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand.

At Kansas State he directs the Wind Ensemble and the Marching Band, teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting, advisor the Band Ambassadors, and administers and guides all aspects of a large BIG XII comprehensive band program. Ensembles under his direction have been invited to perform at numerous State conferences, MENC, two CBDNA regional conferences, The Larry Sutherland Wind band Festival at Fresno State, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. The marching band was awarded the prestigious Sudler Trophy in 2015. The Wind Ensemble also performed at the International Convention of the American Bandmasters Association in 2019 in Loveland, CO.

Dr. Tracz is on the faculty of the Conn-Selmer Institute, adjunct faculty of the American Band College, past member of the Music Education Journal Editorial Board, contributor to the Teaching Music Through performance In Band series, and was recently appointed Chair of the Sudler Trophy Project of the John Philip Sousa Foundation. His honors include the Stamey Award for outstanding teaching, Kansas Bandmasters Outstanding Director award, Wildcat Pride Alumni Association award, the Tau Beta Sigma Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director award, named a Lowell Mason Fellow, and Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Fraternity. He has also received the Conn- Selmer Institute Hall of Fame award, the Kansas State Professorial Performance award, and was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

He has also directly or indirectly raised over 5 million dollars for the construction of the West Stadium Band Hall.

Dr. Tracz is married to Geralyn, and has three daughters, Jessica Tracz Kelly, Kelley Tracz, and Carly Tracz Morris, and one grandson, Caden Tracz Kelly!