Doctor Ron Brown, the manager of the first Illinois team to play USSSA softball a pioneer in every sense of the word.  As a school principal and coach of than small town of Naperville, Ron formed a local team in the late 1960's by combining the top athletes spread over a 10-15 year period.

This team quickly became the top 12" softball team in the Chicagoland area.  In order to play better competition his team took to the road and played tournaments all over the Midwest.  Through this tournament play his Feldotts Plateau Softball Club played in Milwaukee in 1969 and became the First Illinois team ever registered with the USSSA.  That team also was the First Illinois World Tournament - The Class A World Tournament in Louisville, KY,

In the early 1970's, Ron resigned as an ASA Commissioner and actively took part in the birth of the Illinois USSSA organization.  He proudly points out that changing associations is a move that he nor any of his players ever regretted even though they were suspended from the ASA for a full calendar year because of their USSSA participation.

Ron's unique strategies coupled with the graying of his hair around the temples earned him the nickname "Silver Fox" from both his own team and his opponents on the softball field.  He guided teams that were sponsored by Naperville businesses such as Feldotts Plateau, Wil-Freds Construction and The Lantern.

His 1971 Wil-Freds team finished in 5th place at the 1971 Louisville USSSA Class A World Tournament.  The trademark to all of Ron's teams was that they would always win the Team Sportsmanship Award.  His teams won numerous major tournaments that included nationally known teams such as Accurate Welding, The Commandoes, Little Caesar's, Copper Hearth, and Transport Oil just to name a few.

Ron was hired as an assistant coach for the Chicago Storm team, an entry into the professional softball league in the mid-1970's.  His second year he was named manager of the professional softball team.  Seven players from his former Lantern Softball Club were signed to play with the pro team.

After retiring from coaching, Ron wrote several softball training manuals, created a scorebook designed for slowpitch softball and published a newsletter on softball.