Ronald Herbert Mason (January 14, 1940 – June 13, 2016) was a Canadian ice hockey player, head coach, and university executive.

From there Mason enrolled at St. Lawrence University in the upstate town of Canton, New York where he lettered in hockey for three years.

[1] In 1961–62, Mason and SLU won the school's first Eastern College Athletic Conference championship and made the NCAA Frozen Four.

He is Bowling Green State's winningest coach by percentage winning over 71 percent of his 229 games at BGSU.

On January 28, 2002, Mason made it official that he would leave his post as head ice hockey coach to become athletic director.

BGSU won the third-place game over defending national champion Wisconsin in the 1978 NCAA Frozen Four.

[12] Michigan State University Athletic Director Joseph Kearney hired Mason to replace the retiring Amo Bessone on April 1, 1979.

[16] Before he officially became athletic director, Mason chose Rick Comley as his successor as hockey coach.

On November 4, 2002, after a disappointing season and a series of off-the-field incidents with players, Mason fired head football coach Bobby Williams with three games left in the season and eventually hired John L. Smith away from Louisville as his permanent replacement.

While athletic director, the Michigan State hockey team won the school's third national title in 2007.

Mason is the only person to have won NCAA ice hockey titles as head coach and athletic director.

Mason also placed a priority seat licensing program in Spartan Stadium based on years of holding season tickets, contribution to the Ralph Young Fund, and a licensing fee for better seats on top of the price of season tickets.

Further updates to increase revenue in Spartan Stadium included a $64 million USD expansion and improvements which include:[3] In September 2006, Michigan State University's board of trustees approved a contract extension for Mason extending his contract as MSU's athletic director through June 2008.

He retired from the post of athletic director at Michigan State University on January 1, 2008, and was succeeded by Mark Hollis.

While building the ice hockey program at Lake Superior State to Division I status, Mason found that his team was left without a conference.

[10] For his contributions in helping build the CCHA, the conference renamed their tournament championship trophy as the Mason Cup in 2000–01.