Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes: Ron Polk

Few, if any, individuals made more of a difference in their sport in the Southeastern Conference than did Ron Polk in baseball.

Photo courtesy of the Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes book.

In the SEC, Polk made baseball matter. Polk concluded his 35-year career as a head coach with a career record of 1,373-700-2 (.662). In July 2009, Polk was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, 14 years after he was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Polk was a trailblazer in SEC baseball, the first to produce a money-making baseball program.

Polk led his teams to a total of eight College World Series appearances, five SEC championships, and 23 Regional NCAA appearances. He is one of only three coaches in college baseball history to take three different programs (Georgia Southern, State and Georgia) to the College World Series.

Polk’s greatest team surely was his 1985 State team that won 50 games and featured future Major League stars Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen.

Here is perhaps the best way to describe how far college baseball has come since Polk took the State job in November of 1975: News of his hiring ran on page 3 of The Clarion-Ledger sports section. There was no news conference, no TV coverage. The job paid $15,000 a year.

Courtesy of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum director Rick Cleveland, author of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes. Cleveland can be reached at rcleveland@msfame.com.