[1][2] A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Rancho High School in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
[5] After working for a year at Colorado State under head coach Sark Arslanian, Kazor was hired in 1976 as the defensive coordinator at Southern Utah State College—now known as Southern Utah University—under head coach Tom Kingsford.
In 1977, he moved to the University of Texas at Austin as an aide to head coach Fred Akers.
[6] Kazor was the linebackers coach at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 1979 and 1980 under head coach Bill Michael before moving to the National Football League (NFL) in 1981 to work as a scout for the Dallas Cowboys.
[11] In February 2000, Kazor was named the head football coach at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.