Inductees

He arrived to Springfield’s Hillcrest High School in 1963 with the basketball court understandably pulling on his heart strings.

You see, Jim Vaughan had been a three-sport athlete in high school and a collegiate basketball player, too. However, contracts with Springfield Public Schools allowed teachers to coach only two sports, and he had already signed up to assist the football staff and coach the Hillcrest track and field team.

Suddenly, a thought came to mind. Why not give officiating basketball games a try?

Turns out, wearing black and white stripes and blowing a whistle over the winter became a part of his life for the next 37 years. And that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Vaughan as a basketball referee with the Class of 2020.

“I enjoyed officiating,” Vaughan said. “I enjoyed the games. I enjoyed the coaches. I enjoyed the players. I have a lot of friends from then who are still friends today.

“When I get out of the house,” Vaughan added, “there are so many people who will see me at the convenience store or somewhere and say, ‘Didn’t you referee for me?’”

When he retired in 2000, Vaughan had officiated hundreds of games, including districts, sectionals and state championships as well as 162 games in the Greenwood Blue & Gold Tournament and 16 years in the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions.

At one point, he officiated a Dixon game involving future University of Missouri star John Brown (MSHOF 2008) as well as Bradleyville’s “Hicks from the Sticks” state championship teams of 1967 and 1968 (MSHOF 2001).

In 1998, the Missouri Interscholastic Administrators Association presented him with the Distinguished Service Awards, and the National Federation Interscholastic Officials Association named Vaughan the Missouri Boys Basketball Official of the Year.

Additionally, he was inducted into the Southwest Missouri Basketball Officials Association Hall of Fame in 2004. Which was an appropriate honor considering Vaughan officiated almost every high school conference around Springfield except for the Ozark Conference since Hillcrest was a member.

All this for a gentleman who played football, basketball and baseball at Rogers High School in Arkansas and then played basketball at Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Oklahoma before jumping into coaching in Missouri high schools.

After two years at Goodman, he spent six years at Golden City, where Vaughan coached the boys track and field team to a pair of 1963 state titles in the Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

Which meant he coached and witnessed one of the state’s best-ever stories, multi-sport star Earl Denny (MSHOF 2008). Denny was among only three athletes on the Indoor team and scored 20 of the team’s 27.5 points, and then was one of only two Golden City athletes on the Outdoor squad – and scored 17 of its 25 points.

Yet there was always the tug of basketball, especially when he arrived to Hillcrest. And so he turned to refereeing and was fortunate to have an early mentor in ref Shelby Raney.

“I was going to try to officiate two games a week,” Vaughan said. “That few games tuned into hundreds.”

Vaughan didn’t ref just for an extra few bucks. He was proud to be a ref, making it a point to run in the Hillcrest gym when not teaching a class. Evenings and the summers? Call it homework time.

“I would read over rule books and case books (game situations) on nights I didn’t have a game,” Vaughan said. “I prided myself on trying to be very consistent. I wanted to officiate the last minute of the game the same way as the first minute.”

“You’d have coaches say, ‘If you’re consistent in your calls, we’ll adjust to you,’” Vaughan added.

Likewise, he acknowledged errors or misses and understood the importance of taking the heat.

“If you’re on that court, you’re going to miss one,” Vaughan said. “And you always knew when you blew one.”

Vaughan thanks his family – his wife of 64 years, Rita, and their four children, Tammy, Jamie, Robert and Shane – for understanding his passion for sports. In track, for instance, he started the Hillcrest Invitational in 1972, growing it from only three teams to one of the state’s premier events for 33 years.

He also thanks athletes not only for putting in the work in sports but especially in the classroom. Additionally, his thanks goes to coaches and administrators, too, for their support.

“It was a run,” Vaughan said. “And you know what? I’d give anything to do it again.”