A storied coaching career came to an end Wednesday morning as the Abilene Public Schools Board of Education voted to non-renew the contract of Abilene Boy’s Basketball Coach Terry Taylor.  He finished an incredible 46 year coaching career, 43 years as a head coach with a 617-334 record.

Taylor started coaching in Buhler as an assistant in 1974.  In 1977, he took his first head coaching job at Meade where he coached for two seasons.  His first team at Meade finished 7-11 but improved to 17-4 in his second season and won the Iroquois League Championship.

Taylor would then take over at Lyons in 1979 where he coached for four years. His teams went 38-43 during that time span.  In 1983, he took over at Parsons. He helped guide them to a state title in 1987 in his final year with their program. In his four years at Parsons, the Vikings compiled a 77-16 record and won three Southeast Kansas League Championships.  He would then spend his next 12 years in Manhattan from 1987-1999, the Indians went 152-110 during his time as coach and won two I-70 League Titles.  Taylor was then hired as head coach of Augusta in 1999.  He helped guide the Orioles to a state championship in 2002.  Taylor finished with a 108-72 record in eight seasons in Augusta and his teams won two Ark-Valley Chisolm Trail League Titles.

Taylor was hired as Abilene’s head coach in 2007.  This was a return to his home county, as he graduated from Chapman in 1970.  He was retired from teaching, and farmed his parent’s farm just outside of Chapman, while coaching the Cowboys as a Rule 10 coach.

In 2011, Taylor finally broke through in his fourth year in Abilene and helped guide the Cowboys to their first North Central Kansas League Title since 1992.  Taylor’s Cowboys owned the league over the last decade as they won eight league championships, with six of those titles outright.  In 2012, Abilene finished 22-2, 10-0 and captured their second straight undefeated league title.  They also returned to state for the first time since 1992.  In 2013, the Cowboys went 20-6, 7-3 and returned to state where they finished in 4th place in Class 4A.  Abilene went back to state for a final time under Taylor in 2017.  That season his team went 21-4, 8-2 and finished 3rd at state which was the Cowboy’s best finish since Abilene won it all in 1992.

Taylor finished with a 218-78 record at Abilene over 13 seasons with the highest winning percentage 74% for a coach in school history. He was second to Scott Stein in victories.  Abilene finished 14-8, 9-1 this past season under Taylor.  The Cowboys season came to an end at Buhler in a 56-54 sub-state final loss to the Crusaders and Coach Taylor’s career ended in the same place it started a remarkable 46 years ago.