2022 Community Champions: Nick Taylor honored with Brad Parks Award

As a competitor, Taylor will always be remembered for his unusual serve, a literal ‘kick’ serve perfected over years of playing, in which he tossed the ball up using his foot while having his racquet chained to his hand.

Taylor’s competitive resume in tennis is rivaled only by his off-court involvement. 

A double alumnus of Wichita State University, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree there, Taylor has been involved with the school’s varsity men’s tennis team for more than 15 years—first as an intern, later as a volunteer assistant coach, and now as its director of operations. He is also currently the tournament director at the $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event held in Wichita, which will host a men’s and women’s tournament in consecutive weeks this year. He has taught “almost everything” in the school’s undergraduate sports management department and currently teaches at the graduate level.  Taylor has been a mentor to young wheelchair players, including Casey Ratzlaff, a fellow Wichita native who picked up tennis at age 12 at a tennis camp hosted by Wichita Adaptive Sports—a nonprofit co-founded by Taylor—and qualified for his first Paralympic Games at age 23.

Taylor is also a member of the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) wheelchair players’ council, where he’s successfully lobbied for the inclusion of quad events at the French Open and Wimbledon in recent years, and the expansion of the discipline at majors to eight players. He is on the USTA’s national wheelchair tennis committee, where he currently chairs the tournament and rules subcommittee, and is a member of the Missouri Valley section’s diversity and inclusion and Hall of Fame committees.

“Nick Taylor is one of the greatest wheelchair players in history and continues to make a huge impact on wheelchair tennis,” said Craig Morris, USTA Chief Executive, Community Tennis.  “He has been an inspirational leader in the community of Wichita helping grow the sport, and we are thrilled to be able to recognize his great work with the Brad Parks Award.” 

The Brad Parks Award was established in 2002 to recognize outstanding contributions to the sport of wheelchair tennis. Named after San Clemente, Calif., resident Brad Parks, a pioneer of wheelchair tennis and the first wheelchair tournament champion, the award is presented annually and honors an individual or organization that has been instrumental in the development of wheelchair tennis around the world through playing, coaching, sponsoring and promoting the game.