The Grand Marshal

Homecoming 2007

Ron Mason

Ron Mason was introduced as the 16th athletics director in Michigan State history on Jan. 28, 2002, and assumed the leadership of the 25-sport department on July 1, 2002. Prior to moving into an administrative role, Mason spent 36 years behind the bench, including 23 seasons at Michigan State, during which he established himself as the winningest coach in college hockey history.

During Mason’s five-year tenure as athletics director, State squads have captured 11 conference championships (regular season and postseason combined) and one national championship. In addition, MSU has been represented at the NCAA Championships 72 times, including Final Four/Frozen Four appearances by men’s basketball (2005), women’s basketball (2005), field hockey (2002 and 2004) and ice hockey (2007).

In 2006-07, 12 of MSU’s 25 sports participated in NCAA Championships for the second-straight year. The ice hockey team capped an incredible postseason run by winning the program’s third national championship, defeating Boston College 3-1 in the NCAA title game. With the championship, Michigan State became one of only nine schools in the country to win at least three ice hockey national titles. In addition to the national championship, both the men’s and women’s golf teams captured Big Ten titles and advanced to the NCAA Championships. In March, the men’s and women’s basketball teams extended their program record for consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, as the men’s team earned its 10th-straight bid and the women’s team made its fifth-straight appearance. The overall success of the department was represented in Michigan State’s jump to 34th place in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup. The department also reached another milestone by hosting the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament First and Second Rounds at the Breslin Center, marking the first time MSU has hosted the prestigious event. East Lansing led all eight First- and Second-Round sites with a total 21,340 fans passing through the turnstiles during the three sessions.

During Mason’s watch, Spartan student-athletes also have excelled in the classroom. In fall 2006, 12 teams posted a 3.0 or higher grade-point average, including 304 student-athletes who recorded a 3.0 or better for the semester. In spring 2007, student-athletes produced a cumulative GPA of 2.98, as 40 student-athletes posted a perfect 4.0 term GPA (most in program history) and a record-tying 14 sports maintained a 3.0 cumulative GPA. A total of 193 student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2006-07 academic year.

Community outreach and service also have been a priority during his tenure, with over 300 student-athletes participating in outreach activities during the 2006-07 academic year. Now in its fourth year, the outreach initiative PACT (Putting Athletes and Community Together) has reached over 45,000 area children.

Mason’s vision on diversity programming has had a significant impact on the daily lives of MSU’s student-athletes. MSU’s Student-Athlete Multicultural Center, the first of its kind at the NCAA Division I-A level, provides quality leadership training for minority student-athletes as well as social and outreach programs.

Under Mason’s leadership, the Ralph Young Fund has set all-time record highs each of the last five years, including $28.5 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year. He successfully introduced Scholarship Seating for football as well as men’s and women’s basketball which has generated significant funds for the athletics department. Fundraising efforts have been completed on three major athletic facility initiatives, including the Alfred Berkowitz Basketball Complex, Spartan Stadium expansion and Doug Rearick Golf Practice Facility. Significant progress also has been made towards the funding of two additional athletic facilities, including expansion of the Duffy Daugherty Football Building and the Old College Field project, which supports MSU’s men’s and women’s soccer, baseball and softball programs. In addition, the men’s and women’s basketball teams will move into new locker rooms at the Breslin Center for the 2007-08 season. At a cost of $2.6 million, the privately funded locker rooms will rank among the very best in the nation.

During 2005-06, 12 sports participated in NCAA Championships, and in 2004-05, Mason saw a school-record five teams (field hockey, men’s golf, women’s basketball, crew and men’s soccer) capture Big Ten Conference Championships. Seventeen of the 25 sports were represented at the 2003-04 NCAA Championships for the second straight year and the football team participated in the Alamo Bowl. In 2002-03, 17 of MSU’s 25 sports were represented at the NCAA Championships, including the field hockey team, which advanced to the Final Four for the first time in school history.

Mason finished his 36-year coaching career in 2002 with a record of 924-380-83. In 23 years at Michigan State, he posted a 635-270-69 mark. He is the only coach in college hockey history with more than 750 victories. His career highlights include an NCAA Championship at Michigan State in 1986 and an NAIA Championship with Lake Superior State in 1972. He led MSU to 17 CCHA regular-season and playoff titles and guided 23 teams to the NCAA Tournament, an all-time record. In addition, he coached 35 All-Americans and 50 former Spartans who went on to establish careers in the National Hockey League.

Mason’s Michigan State career began with the 1979-80 season when he replaced the legendary Amo Bessone. The seven-time CCHA Coach of the Year led the Spartans to seven regular-season league championships and 10 playoff crowns. In 2001, the conference honored Mason by renaming the CCHA playoff trophy - The Mason Cup - in recognition of his contributions to college hockey and the formation of the league as well as his success behind the bench. Mason is considered one of the “Founding Fathers” of the CCHA, as he joined Bowling Green’s Jack Vivian and St. Louis University’s Bill Selman in establishing a “coaches’ league” in 1971.

On March 18, 1994, a win over Bowling Green established him as the winningest college hockey coach in history. In 2001-02, Mason’s final campaign as the Spartan coach, he recorded his unprecedented 900th-win as a college hockey coach with a victory over Ferris State (Oct. 20, 2001).

Mason also had a first-hand perspective on one of MSU’s biggest athletic endeavors, as he coached his Spartans against Michigan in front of a world-record crowd of 74,554 in an outdoor hockey game at Spartan Stadium (Oct. 6, 2001). He coached MSU’s only two Hobey Baker Award winners - Kip Miller in 1990 and Ryan Miller in 2001. He also coached the first college player - Joe Murphy - to be taken first overall in the NHL Draft in 1986 by the Detroit Red Wings.

Mason served on the American Hockey Association Board of Directors from 1973-77 and is a former member of the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee and NCAA Ice Hockey Championships Committee.

He is active in a number of local organizations and charities. He is very involved with Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, where he recently completed a four-year term on the Sparrow Foundation Board and has set up the Ron Mason Fund for Kids that supports the Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, which has raised nearly $675,000 since 1998. He also served as the honorary chairperson for the Children’s Miracle Network, which has raised $19 million over the last 19 years, and has worked with the Coaches For Kids campaign, which has raised $5.3 million in the last seven years for a pediatrics emergency room at Sparrow Hospital. In addition, he served on the committee for the broomball game for the Legal Eagles, which benefited the Boys and Girls Club of Lansing, and spent several years on the Lansing Safety Council. Mason currently is a board member for the Lansing Chamber of Commerce.

Mason received his bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University in 1964 and his master’s degree from Pittsburgh in 1965. He was presented with an honorary doctorate from Michigan State in the spring of 2001.

For all his career accomplishments, Mason has been inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1994), Lake Superior Sports Hall of Fame (1996) and St. Lawrence Sports Hall of Fame (1999). In addition, the American Hockey Coaches Association honored him with the John MacInnes Award for his outstanding contributions to hockey in the spring of 2003, and he received the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation’s 2004 “Legend of Hockey” award in April 2004.

Born Jan. 14, 1940, in Blyth, Ontario, Mason and his wife Marion, have two daughters, Tracey and Cindy, and two grandsons, Tyler and Travis. An avid fisherman, Mason also enjoys golfing.