Porter Vaughan was born in Stevensville, Virginia. He attended Stevensville High School and the University of Richmond, graduating in 1940. He has served as a Trustee from 1970-1974, and again, from 1983 to the present time. Vaughan has served as Chairman of the University of Richmond Athletic Council. Vaughan was also a founder of the Mac Pitt Athletic Scholarship Fund in 1977 and 1978 at the University of Richmond, and established one in his name in 1991.
In his junior year at the University of Richmond, the Spiders won the Southern Conference Championship and in his senior year were the Virginia State Champions. Vaughan pitched 6 shutouts, which stood for nearly three decades. He continues to hold several records at his Alma Mater for fewest hits per nine innings for a season (3.99-3170, 1939). VaughanÕs career record for the fewest hits per nine innings still stands at 4.99 hits (122220, 1938-40). The most strikeouts per nine innings is held by Vaughan for the season 12.89 (95/66.1, 1940), and a career record of 10.39 still exists (254/220.0, 1938-40).
In the summer of 1939, he pitched for the Sanford, North Carolina semi-pro team winning the Tobacco State League Championship. His record with this team was 12 wins, no defeats, and 1 tie. The team won the State Semi-Pro Tournament at High Point, North Carolina, and in two games he struck out 40 men and was selected as the leading pitcher of the tournament.
Vaughan was a major league baseball pitcher with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1940, 1941, and in spring training again in 1946. At that time, he was traded to the New York Yankees and sent to their American Association team at Kansas City in 1946 but retired after spring training in 1947.
While at Toronto in 1941, he was an International League All-Star and returned to the Athletics at the end of that season. In 1944 while in the Air Force and playing at Buckley Field in Denver, Colorado, he sustained a shoulder injury. Upon returning to civilian life in 1946 and the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, he won 4 and lost 2 decisions with an overall Kansas City earned run average of 2.22.