February 12, 2026 – The Nashville Stars join the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and baseball fans everywhere in mourning the loss of a dear friend, Ron “Schoolboy” Teasley, the second-oldest Negro Leagues player as of his 99th birthday earlier this month.
As a teenager, Teasley would often play in baseball games among adults more than twice his age, which is where he earned his “Schoolboy” nickname. He earned a scholarship at nearby Wayne State University — where he posted a .500 batting average in 1945 — before serving in the Pacific with the United States Navy during World War II.
He spent part of the 1948 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers when he returned stateside, then joined the New York Cubans after his release from the Dodgers. After playing one more season of independent baseball in 1950, he built a 35-year coaching career across the Detroit area, including at his alma mater of Northwestern High School.
“He took pride in being a coach, whether it was baseball, basketball or golf, whether it was high school, college or semi-pro,” Teasley’s son Ron Jr. said. “And for him, coaching was not just showing up for practices and games. If he was your coach, he was your coach for life. He kept in touch with his players, helped them when they were going through hard times, celebrated their achievements. He simply loved to coach.”
The Stars joined the Teasley family in Detroit last year, and Ron Jr. added that the effort of the Nashville Stars to honor the Negro Leagues and its players always meant so much to his father. “He recognized that the Negro Leagues was a community business,” Ron Jr. said. “It wasn’t just the game, it was church before the Sunday game, dinner at the local restaurant, get togethers afterwards; he knew that the Negro Leagues were an important economic force wherever they played, providing jobs and bolstering the strength and the spirit of each community. And that’s why he was so excited to see what the Stars are doing.”
Asked to share a memory he’ll always cherish, Ron Jr. said there are so many good times he and his father had together, including the time the two faced off in a Detroit baseball playoff game, the former playing for Detroit Danby High School and the latter coaching at Northwestern High. But his favorite memory was joining his father and former Detroit Tiger Billy Bruton on a Detroit Senior League team for a game in the early 1980s against a Grand Rapids squad. His father hit second, Bruton followed him. The pitcher thought he could handle them, but Teasley and Bruton slammed consecutive homers off him in the first inning. “I know the pitcher was thinking ‘Who are these old guys,’ and my father just smiled.
“Oh yes, he could always play this game, and he always loved it.”
The Stars join Teasley’s family, friends and sports fans everywhere in celebrating his life and legacy, on and off the diamond.