Don Vaughan

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.

Career 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 as the Saints posted winning records each year and made the 1983 NCAA Tournament, falling to eventual champion Wisconsin in the quarterfinals.

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.

In 1991 long-time Colgate coach Terry Slater died suddenly 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.

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. 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.

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. After winning his first conference championship in 2023, Vaughan retired after 30 years as the Raiders' head coach. He left as the program's all time leader in games, wins, losses and ties.

Career statistics