Mississippi State announces Ron Polk Ring of Honor class of 2025

From MSU Media Relations

The seventh group of inductees into the Ron Polk Ring of Honor will see their plaques unveiled this spring when the trio of Mitch Moreland, Ted Milton and Mike Proffitt are enshrined as the 2025 class.

Moreland, Milton and Proffitt will be celebrated during Mississippi State’s conference series versus South Carolina (April 4-6, 2025) with the induction ceremony set to be held on Saturday, April 5.

The Ring of Honor is named after legendary head coach Ron Polk, who led the Bulldogs from 1976-97 and again from 2002-08. Affectionately referred to as the Godfather of Southeastern Conference baseball, Polk served 31 years as head coach in the league, including a stint at the University of Georgia (2000-01).

The architect of five SEC championship teams and five SEC Tournament-title winning squads, Polk was a four-time SEC Coach of the Year and two-time National Coach of the Year honoree.

The first SEC coach in any sport to reach 1,000 victories, Polk guided Mississippi State to six College World Series appearances and owned a 1,139-590 record with the Maroon and White. He totaled 1,373 career coaching victories, making eight total trips to Omaha. A two-time Team USA head coach, Polk is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association, Mississippi Sports and College Baseball Hall of Fames.

During his tenure as a head coach, Polk tutored 33 All-Americans, 71 All-SEC selections and 187 Major League Baseball draft picks – including 29 who reached the big leagues. Named an SEC Legend in 2017, Polk has also earned the prestigious Lefty Gomez Award from the ABCA and Rube Award from Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame for his tireless service to others during his career.

Mitch Moreland
2005-07
A true dual-position athlete, Moreland saved his best season for his last year at Mississippi State as he hit .343 with 26 doubles as a junior. Until the 2017 season, Moreland was second in school history with those 26 doubles. He appeared in 16 games on the mound as a junior and posted a 3.20 ERA with 28 strikeouts.

Following the 2006 NCAA Clemson Regional, Moreland was named to the All-Tournament Team. During the regional, Moreland was 7-for-15 (.467) with three doubles and three walks. Besides earning All-Regional honors in 2006, he was a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree and was named to the 2005 First-Team SEC Academic Honor Roll.

Over his three years at State, Moreland appeared in 135 games while hitting .332 (144-for-434). Of those 144 hits, he hit 17 home runs and 37 doubles while driving in 91 runs. On the mound, Moreland made 25 appearances and pitched 34.1 innings and posted a 3.15 ERA while punching out 45 and only walking seven.

Moreland was drafted in the 17th round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the Texas Rangers.
Over 12 seasons with Texas, Boston, San Diego and Oakland, he played in 1,260 big league games. He was a key piece in the lineup for the Rangers during a 2010 run to the World Series and then for the Red Sox as they won it all in 2018. The lefty slugger hit 186 homers while finishing with a career .764 OPS, winning an American League Gold Glove in 2016 with the Rangers, while making the 2018 AL All-Star team as a member of the Red Sox. Moreland played in 52 postseason games while participating in three World Series.

Ted Milton
1969-72
Milton was a standout member of the Diamond Dawgs from 1969-72. During the 1970 season, Milton finished the year with five triples, which following the season, was tied for the program record. For over seven years, Milton held the school record for career triples with 14 over the 151 games he played in.

He was named the team’s offensive MVP following the 1969 and 1970 seasons. Milton was a member of the first team in Mississippi State history to go to the College World Series in 1971. During the 1969 season, Milton led the team in RBIs (21), and home runs (eight), while hitting .323 on the season. He followed that up with another stellar year for the Bulldogs in 1970 when he led the team in batting average (.328), RBIs (28), and doubles (seven).

Over his four-year career in the Maroon and White, Milton hit .311 (156-for-501) with 23 home runs, 18 doubles, 14 triples and drove in 96. He stole eight bases and scored 102 runs for Mississippi State. Following the 1971 season, Milton was named Second-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American, becoming the first academic All-American in school history.

Milton was drafted twice out of MSU, once in 1972 by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 26^th round and again in the 1973 January Secondary Phase by the California Angels.

Mike Proffitt
1969-72
A four-year letter winner for the Maroon and White, Mike Proffitt etched his own name into the Mississippi State record book. Proffitt sits in the top 10 of eight different career and single-season records at MSU. He has the third-most career wins with 30 and his 1.86 ERA for his career is the fifth-best mark. He pitched 300 1/3 innings at State, the eighth-most in a career. In those 300 1/3 innings, he struck out the eighth-most batters in MSU history with 265.

Besides holding career records, Proffitt holds two single-season marks in ERA as he posted a 1.19 ERA in 1970 and a 1.41 mark in 1972, which currently sit eighth and 10th, respectively. Since 1972, only four players have posted better marks than Proffitt.

Proffitt started in 14 games during the 1971 season and won 11 of those starts, tied for the 10th-most single-season wins in program history. During this season, Proffitt helped guide the Bulldogs to the College World Series for the first time in program history. During the College World Series, Proffitt went eight innings, which was the second-longest outing by an MSU pitcher in the 1971 CWS. His eight innings against BYU in 1971 still rank in the top 10 for longest outings by a Diamond Dawg in Omaha. 

He helped MSU to back-to-back SEC Titles in 1970 and 1971. Proffitt was also named the team’s pitching MVP during the 1971 and 1972 seasons. He was an All-SEC selection during the 1971 season and a First-Team ABCA All-Region honoree in 1972. Proffitt was inducted into the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.