Ron Polk

Ron Polk

• School Grand Canyon College
• Born January 12, 1944 in Boston, MA USA

Biographical Information

Ron Polk was a longtime baseball coach at Mississippi State University. He began his college coaching career as an assistant at University of Arizona in 1966. He was an assistant at University of New Mexico in 1967 and Miami-Dade South Community College from 1968 to 1971.

He became a head coach at Georgia Southern College in 1972 and remained with the school through 1975. In 1976, he joined the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Under his leadership, the team won four SEC championships and appeared in the College World Series six times. He coached for the USA in the 1996 Olympics. He retired after leading the Bulldogs to the 1997 College World Series. He managed Team USA in the 1998 Baseball World Cup.

He returned to coaching in 2000 at the University of Georgia and led the team to the College World Series and an SEC title in 2001. The next season, Polk returned to Mississippi State, where he coached until retiring after the 2008 season. When the school went through the process of finding a replacement, Polk pushed hard for his assistant, Tommy Raffo, a former player. When new Athletic Director Greg Byrne instead chose John Cohen, another former player at MSU under Polk, Polk said he would take his name off the stadium and the athletic department out of his will.

In 2009, Polk became a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Year-by-Year Coaching Record

Year	School	Overall Record	Conference Record	Notes
1972	Georgia Southern College	31-19
1973	Georgia Southern College	43-12		CWS District Tournaments / CWS
1974	Georgia Southern College	47-14		CWS District Tournaments
1975	Georgia Southern College	34-19
1976	Mississippi State University	28-17	11-12
1977	Mississippi State University	33-15	11-9
1978	Mississippi State University	38-18	13-8	CWS Regionals
1979	Mississippi State University	48-12	17-2	CWS Regionals / CWS
1980	Mississippi State University	31-19	10-11
1981	Mississippi State University	46-17	17-6	CWS Regionals / CWS
1982	Mississippi State University	28-23	11-13
1983	Mississippi State University	42-15	17-5	CWS Regionals
1984	Mississippi State University	45-16	18-5	CWS Regionals
1985	Mississippi State University	50-15	16-8	CWS Regionals / CWS
1986	Mississippi State University	34-21	12-15
1987	Mississippi State University	39-22	13-13	CWS Regionals
1988	Mississippi State University	44-20	17-10	CWS Regionals
1989	Mississippi State University	54-14	20-5	CWS Regionals
1990	Mississippi State University	50-21	17-9	CWS Regionals / CWS
1991	Mississippi State University	42-21	12-9	CWS Regionals
1992	Mississippi State University	40-22	15-9	CWS Regionals
1993	Mississippi State University	41-21	17-12	CWS Regionals
1994	Mississippi State University	36-23	15-12
1995	Mississippi State University	34-25	11-16
1996	Mississippi State University	38-24	17-13	CWS Regionals
1997	Mississippi State University	47-21	19-11	CWS Regionals / CWS
2000	University of Georgia	32-26-1	14-15
2001	University of Georgia	47-22	20-10	CWS Regionals / CWS Super Regionals / CWS
2002	Mississippi State University	34-24-1	14-15
2003	Mississippi State University	42-20-1	17-12	CWS Regionals
2004	Mississippi State University	35-24	13-17	CWS Regionals
2005	Mississippi State University	42-22	13-16	CWS Regionals
2006	Mississippi State University	37-23	12-17	CWS Regionals
2007	Mississippi State University	38-22	15-13	CWS Regionals / CWS Super Regionals / CWS
2008	Mississippi State University	23-33	9-21