2019 Male Player: Ron Funderberg

Ron “T-Bird” Funderberg

Written by Pete Williams – Manager/Coach Lilly Air Systems (1996 IL USSSA HOF Inductee) 

Ron Funderberg is THE softball player from Waukegan, Illinois. He specializes in two things; hitting and pitching. I first saw him play when my team from Deerfield, the Hilltoppers, started playing in the Waukegan house league, says Pete Williams, former manager and coach.

Waukegan was probably the most competitive league in Illinois although some people from Rockford might doubt that. Anyway, there are a lot of great players in the league, but it did not take me long to figure out that Ron ‘T-Bird’ Funderberg was the best. He would regularly hit high fly balls over the fence and above the adjacent building. Over the years, I have seen many home run hitters, but none that provided the defence in the field like T-Bird.

T-Bird was a pitcher who could throw high arc in an ASA league and keep the ball at the 3-foot level when playing USSSA. His skills as a defender was that he would back up quickly after pitching the ball and get in the crouched position ready to field ground balls heading his way. This, along with his wide body stance, would almost eliminate all the players that would try to hit the ball up the middle. In fact, when playing ASA, he would go back so far that often he would take the throw from middle infielders on force plays at second base.

In the years we played in the Waukegan League as the Hilltoppers and later as Lilly Air Systems, I continued to try and recruit him to play with our team. But he was loyal and continued to play with his team Big Al’s and with his buddy, John Foster. However, when John Lilly decided to sponsor and play for a team on a National level, T-Bird was one of the first players we selected to help us win tournaments on weekends all over the country.

In 1980, Lilly won enough tournaments to qualify the play in the USSSA World Series in Concord, California. With the help of T-Bird and others of his skill, we were able to finish fourth in the country. In 984, we were one of the 80 teams to qualify for the ASA Men’s Major World Tournament in Dallas, Texas. With T-Bird pitching and timely hitting and the rest of the talented team members, Lilly went 7-0 and captured the World Championship at the Major Level.

T-Bird’s playing days didn’t end with Lilly Air Systems, however. The Bird then joined Joe Black’s Softball Club and continued his prowess on the mound, helping them attain National success as well. Softball has been a big part of T-Bird’s life and he deserves the honor given to him tonight, inducting him into the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame.