The NCAA News - News Features

Vaughan to retire from NCAA after 33 years

Fannie B. Vaughan, NCAA executive assistant, is retiring after 33 1/2 years of service to the Association, effective December 31.

Vaughan was hired by Executive Director Walter Byers and began work May 15, 1963 -- one of only a handful of staff members at the time.

In the early years, Vaughan assisted Byers with several committees and became the NCAA's first woman staff liaison to a committee when she was assigned to staff the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.

Vaughan has been involved with the committee almost since its inception in 1964 and has stayed with the group through the years. She has been the only administrator for the program.

She also assisted Byers with the Academic Testing and Requirements Committee, the predecessor of the current NCAA Academic Requirements Committee. In the mid 1960s and early '70s, Vaughan helped administer the 1.600 rule, which set forth a formula (based on high-school performance and on one of the standard college-entrance tests) for predicting the ability of a prospective student-athlete to succeed academically in college, at a minimum level, and thus be able to participate in intercollegiate athletics.

The 1.600 rule was considered a means of ensuring that student-athletes would graduate -- not unlike the initial-eligibility legislation today, she noted -- but it was abolished by the membership in 1973.

Vaughan also was staff liaison to the NCAA Nominating Committee and the Men's Committee on Committees, and -- after the NCAA's decision to sponsor championships in women's sports -- the Women's Committee on Committees.

She has been responsible for keeping track of hundreds of nominations and appointments to about 100 committees through the years.

Vaughan joined the Association's enforcement department in 1972 when the staff was re-organized into departments. She also was involved in the development of need-based financial aid legislation.

Through the years, Vaughan has been associated with the enforcement, business, administration, and finance and business services staffs. She noted that in her early years at the NCAA, staff members were involved in work across the board, but as work has become more targeted, staff members have become more specialized.