Herman Frazier's professional career, spanning more than four decades, has taken him from Tempe to Syracuse, from Honolulu to Athens, and a few more destinations in between. At every stop, Frazier has left an indelible impression.
 
Frazier's story is rooted in its Arizona beginnings, where he became an All-American track sprinter at Arizona State University. Starting his collegiate career at Denison University in Ohio, Frazier was an eight-time track All-American and captained the Sun Devils' 1977 national championship team, a season in which he was the 400-meter NCAA champion.
 
Frazier's track career also took him internationally as a member of the U.S. National Track & Field team, where he competed in the Olympic and Pan-American games. Frazier ran the first leg for the gold medal-winning 4x400-meter relay in the 1976 Montreal Olympics and earned the bronze medal in the 400-meter dash. He also was a gold medalist in the 4x400-meter relay in the 1975 and 1979 Pan-American games.
 
After graduating from Arizona State in 1977, Frazier entered athletic administration, first as a graduate assistant for the Sun Devils' track and field program while continuing to train for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In 1979, Arizona State Athletic Director Dr. Fred Miller hired Frazier as his assistant director of events and facilities.
 
"I have cherished my career as an athletic administrator and I am fortunate that Dr. Fred Miller took a chance on me and hired me when I was 23 years old," Frazier, now the senior deputy athletics director at Syracuse. "I had never had a full-time job but from there my career blossomed and I owe it all to him for giving me that start."
 
In his role in events and facilities, Frazier – who ultimately rose to senior associate athletics director for business operations during a 23-year tenure at Arizona State – naturally became involved with the Fiesta Bowl as the game was played annually at Sun Devil Stadium from its origin in 1971 through 2006.
 
Through his work with Fiesta Bowl Executive Directors John Reid and Bruce Skinner, Frazier's involvement grew with the Bowl. During a time when the bowl selection process was a competitive one through invitations, Frazier played a crucial role for the Fiesta Bowl, traveling to games across the country to meet with head football coaches and athletic directors when he did not have a scheduling conflict with Arizona State.
 
Frazier eventually joined the Yellow Jacket Committee, and then the Board of Directors in 1991. To conclude his term, Frazier served as the Fiesta Bowl's Board Chair during the historic 1998-99 season in which the Bowl hosted the first-ever BCS National Championship game. Top-ranked Tennessee defeated No. 2 Florida State, 23-16, to claim the national championship and complete an undefeated season.
 
"I saw Tennessee play at least four times that year in person," Frazier said. "I got to know Head Coach Phillip Fulmer very well. Tee Martin was the quarterback. They had a great running back (Travis Henry) and a great receiver (Peerless Price). After they won the championship, we went to a celebration in Knoxville to present the trophy to them and some other items to their fans. That was a unique experience.
 
"I am the administrator that I am today because of my affiliation with such a great organization as the Fiesta Bowl." Frazier, who served as athletic director at University of Alabama-Birmingham (2000-02) and University of Hawai'i (2002-08), was the Fiesta Bowl's second African-American Board Chair following Dr. Morrison Warren. That significance is not lost on Frazier.
 
"I was so proud of him when he became the first African-American to be the president of the bowl and at the time, he was involved with Arizona State University (in the College of Education)," Frazier said. "I always looked up to him as a person who blazed many trails. He was such a humble person, and he was also very bright. At the time, there were still challenges for people of color, so for me to follow in his footsteps as the next African-American president of the bowl was something that I will always cherish."
 
Known for being a Bowl of Firsts, the Fiesta Bowl had monumental games while Warren and Frazier presided over the organization. In addition to the first-ever BCS National Championship game in 1999, Warren – the first African-American to oversee any major bowl game – spearheaded the charge for the Fiesta Bowl's first-ever New Year's Day game in the 1981-82 season.
 
Frazier also worked under former Arizona State AD Charles Harris, the first African-America athletic director at a Power Five school, from 1985-95.
 
Harris helped accelerate Frazier's career arc by elevating him to a senior position in the department, placing Frazier on the council of Pac-10 Conference administrators and launching him into a room of the Pac-10's most established leaders, including then-USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett.
 
Through Garrett, a notable African-American athletic director in his own right, Frazier met Dr. Daryl Gross, who eventually left USC to become athletic director at Syracuse. Gross, one of eight African-American athletic directors at the time of his hiring in 2005, hired Frazier at Syracuse as his deputy athletics director and chief of staff six years later.
 
The significance of Frazier's career, which includes being only the second athletic director at UAB and the first African-American athletic director at Hawai'i, is one he does not take not lightly.
 
"Representation is really important because guys like us, we can't screw up. If we screw up, I think we hurt the next generation that's coming behind us," Frazier said. "Therefore, it's important to be recognized. It's important to do things the right way. I'm proud of those accomplishments and some of the things that I think my legacy will have."
 
In looking at what Frazier's legacy will look like, it casts a wide net and highlighted by service to others, including several roles on the U.S. Olympic Committee. He served two terms as vice president from 1996-2004 and on the U.S. Olympic Athletes Advisory Council. In 2004, he served as the Chef de Mission, or diplomatic head, for the U.S. delegation at the Athens Olympics. That role earned him the 2012 Pioneer Award by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and the McLendon Foundation, recognizing him as the first African-American to win a gold medal and return as Chef de Mission.
 
A member of the Arizona Sports, Sun Devil and Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fames, Frazier served as vice president of USA Track and Field and earned a Congressional Gold Medal for being part of the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. His name can be found on the NCAA's list of 100 most influential student-athletes in 2006 as part of its centennial anniversary.
 
Without question, Frazier is a history maker and role model.
 
"One of the things I always say is I want to go to work every day to make a difference in the lives of young people," Frazier said. "If I could deliver on that theory, I've been successful. There are going to be people who come up behind me and I like to think I've blazed a trail for them."