ECU track & field: Kraft to retire after 19 seasons

East Carolina director of track & field and cross country Curt Kraft announced his retirement on Tuesday morning after a 40-year coaching career.

Kraft spent 35 years in the college ranks, including the last 19 years with the Pirates.

“Curt Kraft and I met yesterday, and he informed me he was going to retire from coaching in mid-September,” ECU athletic director Jon Gilbert said in a news release. “Curt has devoted nearly 20 years to ECU Athletics and the Pirates track program, and we are thankful for all his contributions. Curt will forever be a Pirate. During his time with ECU, he has touched countless lives and impacted thousands of student-athletes. He is a friend and mentor to many in our department and in the community, and I know those relationships will continue. We wish him, his wife Nancy and his family all the best as they move into the next chapter of their lives.”

After graduating from Minot State (N.D.) University in 1984 with a dual major in physical education and social science, Kraft began his coaching career with a five-year stint at as the head coach at Carrington High School before beginning his collegiate career as a graduate assistant at the University of Nebraska where he earned a master’s degree in education.

From Nebraska, Kraft moved to the University of Nevada where, he began a 14-year affiliation with the Wolf Pack. Beginning as an assistant coach in 1991, it only took until 1994 for Kraft to earn his first head coaching gig, taking over command of the Nevada program.

With the Wolf Pack, Kraft won four conference championships and was three times named conference coach of the year, twice in the WAC and once in the Big West. That success also garnered him NCAA Division I Mountain Region Coach of the Year recognition in 2003.

“I knew that one day this would come,” Kraft said of retiring. “This is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. It was important to me to retire while I am still impactful and effective, and I am at peace with my choice knowing that I have made the decision for all the right reasons. I made this decision because of my wife of 40 years, my two children and my grandchildren. It’s time to plan trips with them rather than the team and it’s time for a new voice to lead the program I have loved for the last 19 years.”

In 2005, Kraft made the move to Greenville, where he took over as the women’s head coach for ECU. After his brief term at the helm of the women’s squad, Kraft was tapped to be the program’s head man upon the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Bill Carson in 2007.

Guiding the Pirates, Kraft went on to win three Conference USA Championships on the women’s side (including an indoor-outdoor sweep in 2014), led 25 individuals and three relay teams to NCAA Championships berths and helped his athletes to 81 conference event championships. In doing so, Kraft’s Pirates left a dramatically different looking record book behind with 45 indoor program records and 40 all-time marks outdoors.

Kraft was named league coach of the year three times with ECU (2012 Indoor, 2014 Indoor/Outdoor) and his athletes earned 22 All-American honors, with 11 of those being first-team recognitions. Kraft also had numerous athletes earn their way into national Olympic Team Trials, including Sydni McMillan and Melicia Mouzzon in 2024.

A native of North Dakota, Kraft and his wife have two daughters, Alicia and Kayla, and two grandchildren.