Jun 13, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 10 min read

Marc Vassar was a great natural athlete who had plenty of help from his family tree when it came to honing his skills.

“I come from a big family. At one time before a few of my cousins passed away I had counted 41 first cousins just on my mom’s side,” said the 1988 Uniontown graduate. “I had a lot of ‘big brothers’ that really helped develop me.”

Vassar went on to become one of the top scorers in Uniontown boys basketball history with 1,420 points, which was second all-time until this past season when Red Raider seniors Notorious Grooms and Calvin Winfrey III both surpassed him, bumping him down to fourth.

Vassar, who went on to play four years at NCAA Division-I Youngstown State, where he started as a freshman, is part of the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025. He spoke about his impending induction on Hall of Fame co-founder George Von Benko’s Sports Line Talk Show on WMBS Radio recently.

“My initial reaction was definitely surprise,” Vassar said of being chosen as an inductee. “I have so much respect and admiration for some of the people I know that have gone into the Hall of Fame prior to me, like my cousin Terrance Jackson, Greg Beckwith, Gilbert Floyd, some of the guys that I know. Just to be part of it is definitely an honor.”

Vassar also participated in track and field, where he won a WPIAL gold medal in the high jump, and played two years of football at Uniontown, but basketball was his calling card.

“I think I was in fourth grade when I started playing organized basketball,” Vassar said. “My first coach was Cary “Horse” Jones. He started me off, had me playing on the fourth grade team, the fifth grade team and the sixth grade team. That kind of started it all for me.

“Also, even earlier, I think I was in third grade the first time I participated in the Junior Olympics.”

Among Vassar’s many talented relatives, two stood out to him.

“It started with two cousins. Terrance Jackson and his brother Troy Jackson,” Vassar said. “They were both part of the ’81 state championship team.”

Vassar remembers soaking up everything he could from older players.

“They attended along with most of those guys from that team a camp in Grove City,” Vassar recalled. “I was like in third grade. They came from that and I basically learned ball-handling skills, the proper way to shoot the basketball, they had me juggling tennis balls for hand-eye coordination. I became obsessed with what they taught me and it kind of took off from there.”

There were many others who contributed to his growth as a person and athlete, according to Vassar.

“Geraldine Jackson, who is Terrance’s mother, she kind of started through the East End Community taking a lot of kids to the Junior Olympics,” Vassar said. “Mr. Joe Thomas was one of the main guys that was training us at an early age down on the track at Uniontown and then taking us different places.

“There were a lot of people. Of course my mom and dad, the Thomas family and also the Jackson family. Those were my mom’s sisters, those two families. I love all my family but those two in particular, I spent a lot of time in both of those households. I definitely want to thank them.”

Vassar lauded the coaches and teachers he had along the way as well.

“I had some really good coaches,” Vassar said looking back. “Mr. Richard Bierbower, he had me playing when I was in sixth grade on his eighth grade team in tournaments. Mr. Bill Broda had me also playing up when I was in seventh grade on the eighth grade team. Of course Coach (Lash) Nesser when I got to the high school and played as a freshman.

“I also had some great teachers as well because academics are also important and was stressed by a lot of members of my family, kept me in those books and that allowed me to develop not only athletically but also academically.”

At Uniontown, Vassar’s teams went 10-10 his freshman year and 11-10 his sophomore season before making a big jump the next two years. The Red Raiders were 20-5 his junior season and went 1-1 in the WPIAL playoffs and defeated Altoona and Moon in the PIAA tournament before falling to Meadville.

In Vassar’s senior season Uniontown was 23-4 and beat Greensburg-Salem, 68-54, and Latrobe, 47-45, before suffering a heart-breaking loss to Norwin, 63-61 in overtime in the WPIAL playoffs. The Red Raiders got revenge against a Schenley team it had lost to in the regular season by knocking them out in the first round of the PIAA playoffs, 81-74, but their season ended with a controversial overtime loss to Farrell, 65-62, when a basket by teammate Dana Vaughns was inadvertently credited to the Steelers that would’ve given Uniontown the victory in regulation.

“My junior year and senior year we had some really good teams that went pretty far,” Vassar recalled. “My senior year we got all the way to the final four in the WPIAL. That’s the beauty of basketball. The best team doesn’t always win. Going into that WPIAL tournament I felt we had the best team, but if you don’t play well as a team it could cost you. I don’t know if we peaked too soon or if we just didn’t play well in certain games.”

Vassar looks back on his lofty point total, which included only one season where he played with the 3-point line, with fondness.

“I’m definitely proud of that,” he said.

Vassar was named fourth team all-state his senior year and went on to play in the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic

“That was a great experience,” Vassar said. “I played in the preliminary game but that whole week during practice we played against the two teams that were in the primary game. We got to play against Alonzo Mourning and Shawn Kemp and Chris Jackson, who changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Billy Owens was there. Don MacLean, he ended up going to UCLA.

“A majority of those guys went to the NBA so it was a good experience.”

Vassar was also a good football player although he quit playing to concentrate more on basketball and track and field.

“Sometimes I regret that because I feel like that was my most natural sport,” Vassar said. “I was kind of a slot back. I played a little bit out of the backfield but also played receiver as well.”

Youngstown State discovered what an outstanding athlete Vassar was.

“I remember my freshman year at Youngstown State, they measure you on everything, vertical, 40-yard dash,” Vassar said. “They had me run it. The first time I ran it they clocked me a 4.28 and they were like, ‘That can’t be right.’ So they made me run it a second time and I was like 4.37. They couldn’t believe my speed.

“Actually through my four years of being there I had opportunities to run track and also possibly play football, but I wasn’t interested in that. I just wanted to concentrate on basketball. The most important thing for me was to get that degree and graduate so I thought one sport was enough.”

At Uniontown, Vassar won the WPIAL gold medal in the high jump in 1988, clearing the bar at 6 feet, 9 inches, and finished third in the state when he went out at 6-8.

“Big shoes. My cousin Terrance Jackson won the state two out of the three years he participated,” Vassar said in following in his cousin’s footsteps. “At one time I think he had the state record which was over seven feet, which is incredible because I think Terrance is like 5-10, so serious hops there. I was about 5-9 ½, 5-10. My teammate also won it my junior year, Stu McLee. He’s like a brother to me. We go way back to grade school.

“It was definitely nice to be able to win the WPIAL. I was disappointed I didn’t win the states because going in I had the best jump.”

Vassar stuck with basketball in college and accumulated 509 points, 327 assists and 106 steals in four years with the Penguins, although the team struggled and had a losing record each season.

“My goal was to play Division-I and be able to play right away and I was able to do that,” Vassar said. “We didn’t have a lot of winning, though. My freshman year I thought we had some really good talent but every year I played there it was almost like having a new team and wasn’t able to build a lot of chemistry with players. It was constant turnover.

“It was a good life lesson to learn during that time. Most importantly I was able to graduate. It was good experience.”

Vassar had an opportunity to go up against some of the top teams and players in the country while at YSU.

“My freshman year we played against the University of Michigan and they won the national championship that year,” Vassar pointed out. “I actually got to play against a lot of guys that eventually made it to the NBA. We played Minnesota, Ohio State, Clemson, South Carolina.

“I was just disappointed we were never able to get to the March Madness tournament and be able to experience that.”

Vassar was offered a chance to extend his basketball career after he graduated from college but opted not to.

“I graduated with a bachelor of science from Youngstown State and actually had some opportunities to play overseas but at that time my attitude was if I’m not able to play in the NBA right away it’s time to move on from that,” Vassar said. “So I went to West Virginia University and got a master’s degree.

“I started working with the Cleveland Cavaliers (as a community relations coordinator), did that for a couple years, and eventually got into pharmaceutical sales and worked for Pfizer for probably about 11 years and then moved on to medical device sales with a company called Medtronic and that’s currently what I do now.”

Vassar gave one last shout out to his family and relatives in reflecting on his life.

“A lot of support,” Vassar said. “My mom was the baby of 12 so a lot of first cousins, a lot of family in that area that are going to attend (the Hall of Fame luncheon) to be there to support me.

“I wouldn’t be there without them. I’m looking forward to it.”

Hall of Fame festivities will be held on June 20 beginning with the annual golf outing at 8:30 a.m. followed by the luncheon and inductions at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Connellsville. Golfers can register and luncheon tickets can be purchased by contacting Katie Propes by phone (724-415-2211) or email (kpropes@occluss.com).