| Don Vaughan | |
| Birth Place: | Almonte, Ontario, Canada |
| Player Years1: | 1980–1981 |
| Player Team1: | Canton |
| Player Years2: | 1981–1984 |
| Player Team2: | St. Lawrence |
| Player Years3: | 1984–1985 |
| Player Team3: | Enschede Lions |
| Player Positions: | Center |
| Coach Years1: | 1984–1985 |
| Coach Team1: | Enschede Lions (player-coach) |
| Coach Years2: | 1985–1987 |
| Coach Team2: | St. Lawrence (grad. assistant) |
| Coach Years3: | 1987–1988 |
| Coach Team3: | St. Lawrence (assistant) |
| Coach Years4: | 1988–1990 |
| Coach Team4: | Cornell (assistant) |
| Coach Years5: | 1990–1992 |
| Coach Team5: | St. Lawrence (assistant) |
| Coach Years6: | 1992–2003 |
| Coach Team6: | Colgate |
| Admin Years1: | 2003–2004 |
| Admin Team1: | Colgate (interim AD) |
| Coach Years7: | 2004–2023 |
| Coach Team7: | Colgate |
| Overall Record: | 472–514–123 |
| Tournament Record: | 0–4 |
| Championships: | 2006 ECAC Hockey regular season champion 2023 ECAC Hockey tournament champion |
| Awards: | 2000 ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year Award 2014 Tim Taylor Award (ECAC Hockey) |
Don Vaughan is a Canadian ice hockey retired coach and player. Vaughan had been the head coach at Colgate from 1992 through 2023 and is the programs leader in wins, losses, ties and tenure.[1]
Vaughan began his college career at Canton College, playing for the hockey team for one season before transferring to the cross-town St. Lawrence University, a private university. More importantly Vaughan was now playing for a Division I program. Under Mike McShane Vaughan put up respectable numbers in his three seasons[2] as the Saints posted winning records each year and made the 1983 NCAA Tournament,[3] falling to eventual champion Wisconsin in the quarterfinals.[4]
After graduating with a degree in economics Vaughan headed to Europe to serve as the player-coach for the Enschede Lions, an ice hockey club in the Netherlands.[5]
In 1991 long-time Colgate coach Terry Slater died suddenly[6] and, after the season was finished under Brian Durocher, Vaughan was picked to replace him. The initial seasons were a bit lacking but Vaughan built the program back to its winning ways soon enough, giving the Colgate faithful a 20-win season in 1994–95 which started them on to six consecutive winning seasons culminating with their first NCAA tournament berth in a decade.[1] The season finished with Vaughan being awarded the 2000 ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year Award.[7]
In 2003 Vaughan agreed to serve out the season as Colgate's interim athletic director, allowing long-time assistant Stan Moore to assume control of the team for the year.[8] The Raiders performed exceptionally in his absence, winning a regular season title and earning Moore his own Coach of the Year Award. Not to be outdone, when Vaughen returned the following season he pushed Colgate to a 25-win season (the second-highest total in school history), earning him a second tournament berth which he followed up by winning his first regular season title.[9]
After that the team began to flounder, failing to produce a winning season until 2011–12, but it wasn't all bad news for Vaughan as Colgate established an endowed hockey chair named in his honor.[10] After winning his first conference championship in 2023, Vaughan retired after 30 years as the Raiders' head coach.[11] He left as the program's all time leader in games, wins, losses and ties.
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1981–82 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 31 | 11 | 23 | 34 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1982–83 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 36 | 15 | 15 | 30 | 40 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1983–84 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 29 | 15 | 11 | 26 | 20 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NCAA totals | 96 | 41 | 49 | 90 | 70 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
Source:[12]