A great deal has been made about the decision of school officials in New Rochelle to remove all traces of Ray Rice in the wake of a video of Rice punching his then-fiancee now-wife Janay Palmer. All traces of Rice have been removed from Isaac E. Young Middle School, his photo and plaque was removed from the New Rochelle High School Wall of Fame and his #27 Ravens jersey taken down from the school gym. What remains is Rice’s #5 New Rochelle High School jersey (his number was retired in 2012) in the gym and Rice’s #27 Rutgers jersey in the weight room at the high school used by the football team.
There is another jersey in the gym associated with a former standout basketball player with a less than auspicious past.
Clive “Clyde” Vaughn played for New Rochelle High School in the late seventies before graduating in 1980. He went onto to have an outstanding college career at the University of Pittsburgh. He was drafted as the 117th pick in 1984 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. After he was cut by the Pacers at the end of training camp he went to England where he had a distinguished professional career. He was one of the top players in the league for 7 years and made 27 appearances for the English National Team.
Vaughn retired and turned to coaching. He was an assistant coach at Long Beach State University from 1992 to 1997 then associate head coach from 1997 to 1999. He was assistant coach at the University of South Florida from 1999 to 2002. He was then hired as assistant coach job at the University of Connecticut under legendary Head coach Jim Calhoun.
In 2004 Vaughn’s career came crashing down.
“Clyde” Vaughan was arrested on August 18, 2004 by Hartford, CT police in a prostitution sting. He was offered a plea deal to perform community service and complete a class after which his arrest would have been erased from his record. The deal was contingent on Vaughan’s claim that he was a first-time offender.
A subsequent search under his full legal name, Clive Holland Vaughan, turned up two similar prior arrests. Discovery of the previous arrests prompted a Hartford Community Court judge to rescind a deal Vaughan accepted to perform community service and take a class in exchange for having the latest charged erased from his record. The deal was based on Vaughan not having been charged before with soliciting a prostitute.
Vaughan was arrested, charged and convicted of soliciting a prostitute in Tampa, Florida in 1999 while coaching at the University of South Florida.
Vaughn was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in Long Beach, California shortly before beginning his coaching career at Long Beach State.
For several years, Vaughn sought a way back into the big-time college coaching ranks to no avail. He came close in 2006 when there was an opening at his alma mater. Pitt went with Mike Rice instead. Rice left Pitt after one year to take the head coaching position at Robert Morris University which he left in 2010 to take the same position at Rutgers University, Ray Rice’s alma mater. In a twist of fate, Mike Rice was fired by Rutgers after a video surfaced showing Rice verbally and physically abusing players and throwing basketballs at their heads. Rice was fired day after the video was aired on ESPN.