EAST LANSING — Ron Mason watched on Sunday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks to win the 2016 Stanley Cup, as interested as ever in the game to which he had devoted his life.
Before the sun rose early Monday morning, he was gone.
Mason, the Michigan State icon who left the bench as college hockey’s career wins leader, passed away suddenly overnight. Friends and family members awoke on Monday to the news, and struggled to process the fact that he was gone.
“It’s mind-blowing to me when I heard the news early this morning of our loss,” Michigan State hockey coach Tom Anastos, a former player and assistant coach of Mason’s, said Monday.
Those close to Mason describe him, at 76, as a man who was still full of energy, passion and opinions up until his death. He attended Spartans hockey games this past season, traveled to a coaches convention barely a month ago and still went deep sea fishing by himself off his Florida home.
The news that he was suddenly gone left the hockey offices at Munn Ice Arena in a state of shock.
“Just truly shocking,” said Tom Newton, a longtime Michigan State assistant who played for Mason at Bowling Green.
That shock made it difficult for those close to him to put into context everything Mason accomplished in 36 years as a college hockey coach and six years as Michigan State’s athletic director.
Mason compiled a record of 924-380-83 in his tenure at Lake Superior State, Bowling Green and Michigan State. His win total was the best in the history of the game when he retired in 2002, and now sits second behind only Boston College’s Jerry York.
He won an NAIA national championship with Lake Superior State in 1972 and a NCAA national title in 1986 with Michigan State. In 23 seasons on the bench at Michigan State, he won 17 CCHA regular season and tournament titles, plus 19 NCAA tournament appearances.
He also sent 50 players on to the NHL and coached 35 All-Americans.
Anastos described Mason as a great student of the game, but said his ability to go beyond simply being tactically sound is what allowed him to have so much success.
“I think what made him really good was he had an uncanny ability to know how to use his players, put players together, their strengths and motivate them,” Anastos said.
Anastos and Newton also described an uncommonly competitive man, who could compete over hockey, golf, tennis, or anything else. Anastos remembered seeing Mason’s fire after losses early in his freshman year, a trait that has stuck with him now that he’s a head coach himself. Newton once remembered him as being upset that he couldn’t win the lottery.
“He had an incredible intensity,” Anastos said. “I’m sure there are people that are like that, but his intensity to win is as high as anybody I’ve ever met.”
From the bench at Munn Ice Arena, Mason moved to the athletic director’s office in 2002. There, he oversaw numerous construction projects on campus, plus the hiring of Mark Dantonio as Michigan State’s football coach.
He immediately preceded current Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis, who appreciated the time the two spent together during the transition period between their tenures.
“The ability to have Ron there to kind of guide me over those months was something that helped kind of recalibrate or refocus what some of my thoughts were,” Hollis said.
When Anastos first heard word early Monday morning of Mason’s passing, he started getting the word out to others. Many, he found, already knew. It was a reminder of the impact Mason continues to have in the hockey community.
“His reach is incredible as it relates to our sport,” Anastos.
