__NOTOC__ Govoner Vaughn (born March 1, 1937) was a former high school, college and professional basketball player during the 1950s & 60s. Vaughn led

Edwardsville High School Edwardsville Senior High School is a public high school located in Edwardsville, Illinois. History Edwardsville High School was first located on North Kansas Street in downtown Edwardsville. Due to the expansion of the town, a new high school ...

to a fourth-place finish in the I.H.S.A. 1954 high school playoffs, as well as a second-place finish in 1956 to defending champion, Rockford West. Vaughn played in eight career state playoff games over two seasons, and his 92 points were all scored during the 1956 tournament. He, along with his teammate,

Mannie Jackson Mannie Jackson (born May 4, 1939) is the chairman and co-owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, for whom he played from 1962 to 1964. He was the first African American with controlling ownership in an entertainment organization and international sport ...

, were named first-team all-tournament. Vaughn went on to play for the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

for three years, 1957–1960, where he and his fellow high school teammate, Jackson, were the first African-American letter winners for the University of Illinois. Vaughn scored 1,001 career points, the 46th highest total in Illini history. He also holds the second highest single season free-throw percentage at .865, making 83 of 96 during the 1959–60 season. After graduating from Illinois in 1960, Vaughn joined the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

. During his time with the Globetrotters, he was named MVP of the 1961 World Series of Basketball. This event was a 20-game series against the nation's top college seniors. Vaughn rejoined the Globetrotters in 2010 and served as the team's director of alumni relations after spending 24 years at

Detroit Edison DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) is an investor-owned electric utility founded in 1886 in Detroit, Michigan. As the largest electric utility in Michigan, it serves approximately 2.3 million customers in the southeastern p ...

College career

1956–57 season

Vaughn played on the freshman squad, records for this season could not be added to his varsity totals.

1957–58 season

During Vaughn's sophomore season, he started all 22 games as the team's

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

. He finished the season with the second highest point total (327) averaging 14.9 points per game. Only

Don Ohl Donald Jay Ohl (April 18, 1936 – December 2, 2024) was an American professional basketball player for 10 seasons (1960–1970) in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini. Th ...

scored more points at 431. Vaughn, however, finished with the highest field goal average at .426 and the second highest free-throw percentage at .773, making 51 of his 66 attempts.

1958–59 season

Even with the graduation of leading scorer Don Ohl, the Fighting Illini experienced a surge in performance sparked by the play of

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center John Wessels and

teammate

along with

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

guard Roger Taylor. These changes, however, limited Vaughn's production and reduced his point total to 263 for the season. Even with a reduced role, Vaughn finished the season with the fourth highest point total averaging 12.5 points per game.

1959–60 season

Vaughn was the instrumental force in the 1959–60 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team. He started all 23 games during that season and dominated all offensive categories after an injury sidelined previous team-leader John Wessels. Vaughn was first on the

Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The university operates a number of athletic fac ...

in scoring with 411 points (17.9 per game), first on the team in rebounding with 189 (8.2 per game) and first on the team in free-throw percentage at .865 (83 of 96); second on the all-time Illini record list. Vaughn was named team

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

as well as All-American for this season.

Honors

Basketball

* 1958 – Honorable Mention All-American * 1959 – Honorable Mention All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

* 1960 – 2nd Team All-Big Ten * 1960 – Team MVP * 1960 – Honorable Mention All-American * 1973 – Inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame as a player. * 2008 – Honored as one of the thirty-three honored jerseys which hang in the

State Farm Center The State Farm Center is a large dome-shaped 15,544-seat indoor arena located in Champaign, Illinois, owned and operated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The arena hosts games for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, ...

to show regard for being the most decorated basketball players in the University of Illinois' history.

Statistics

College

Sports-Reference.com
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References

External links

Harlem Globetrotters Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughn, Govoner 1937 births Living people Basketball players from Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players American men's basketball players Forwards (basketball) 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen