Frank Taylor

Who is Frank Taylor?

Frank Taylor was the first head coach of the University of Nevada football team, then known as the Sagebrushers. It was his only year as a head coach.

In 1896, the university, at that time the only institution of higher learning in the state of Nevada and called by the moniker Nevada State University, investigated the possibility of adding football to their short list of athletic programs and hired Taylor from the University of California, Berkeley for the purpose of developing and fielding the U's first gridiron squadron. They played only two games that year, the first of which was scheduled against the Belmont preparatory school to take place on "the hill" at the original Mackay Stadium, located in the depression at the middle of campus where the Mack Social Sciences, Reynolds School of Journalism, and the auspicious Lecture Hall currently exist. The result was a complete debacle as Belmont relentlessly thrashed the hapless Sagebrushers by the tally of 70-0.

"But," the Artemesia would report five years later, "the team learned something about football by watching the Belmont boys play."