During my East St. Louis high school (1955-57) junior/senior basketball seasons, I played against the likes of Alton's Gene Veloff and Bill McAfoos; Edwardsville's Mannie Jackson, Gov Vaughn and Buzz Shaw and Collinsville's Tom Jackson and Terry Bethel. Each individual was an outstanding talent and several went on to have illustrious college careers and some professional runs.
Aside from the aforementioned basketball talents there was another name during that time period that I often heard mentioned; the State's leading scorer from Tamms, Illinois, Charlie "Chico" Vaughn. I did not play high school basketball against "Chico" but while at Illinois State University, I played against 'Chico" when Southern Illinois basketball coach, Harry Gallatin brought his 'Salukis" to Normal. "Chico" Vaughn was every thing people said he was; an uncanny scorer with his impossible to defend 'over-the-head fade-away jump shot.' After college basketball, Charlie "Chico" Vaughn played a stint with the NBA St. Louis 'Hawks.'
During my twenty-one seasons coaching the Jacksonville high school "Crimsons," I coached a player named Andy Kaufmann who lead the State in scoring three consecutive seasons averaging 32.0 per game each season. Often times sports writers would tell me just how many points Andy needed to average his final season to break "Chico" Vaughn's all-time individual IHSA scoring record. I never paid any attention to that hype because we were focused on winning basketball games instead of individual accomplishments; it all made for interesting press clips. After Kaufmann graduated from JHS, he attended the University of Illinois and still today ranks in there top ten scoring leaders. One "Bragging Rights" game versus Mizzou, Kaufmann scored 33 points.
These past thirteen years, I have coordinated an 8-team invitational basketball tournament in Decatur with a field of Springfield Southeast, Springfield Lanphier, Bolingbrook, Harvey-Thornton, Peoria Central, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur and East St. Louis. We have seen more than sixty Division I players come through this tournament. About seven years ago, I invited the State's top two all-time individual scorers to be saluted by Decatur basketball fans. "Chico" Vaughn and Andy Kaufmann met for the first time; one I had played against the other I had coached.
When Vaughn was introduced the crowd stood and applauded his state's top scoring number of 3.358 points, all before the 3-point shot. The audience came unglued when Kaufmann (3,160 PTS.) was introduced after the reminder of the 'Iowa game-winning shot.' The introduction went as follows: "Chico" was introduced and dribbled a basketball to center court. He then faked several passes to Andy awaiting his introduction at the bench. Finally, "Chico" passed the ball to Andy for his introduction. Someone later asked "Chico" why he hesitated 'passing' the basketball from center court to Kaufmann; "Chico" said, "I didn't score all those points 'passing' the ball. Believe me, Chico, Andy understood THAT logic!
It was a neat moment for two great basketball players and many fans.
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