Vance played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini where he led the team as a member of the famed "Whiz Kids" of the 1940s. He and the other Whiz Kids, Andy Phillip, Art Mathisen, Ken Menke, and Jack Smiley, are regarded as some of Illinois' all-time greats, but only he and Phillip are on the team's all-century team. Vance and his Whiz Kids teammates left basketball to serve in World War II in 1943. Vance was selected by the Stags in the 1948 NBA draft, and played professionally for five seasons. He served as the athletic director of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1967 to 1972.
Vance was married to Grace Hoberg from 1943 until her death from stomach cancer in 1980. Vance later married Janann Duffy and had four children. He died on February 16, 2012, at age 88.
