Ronald George Polk was a long-time head baseball coach at Mississippi State and is considered the "Father of SEC Baseball". He is by far the winningest coach in school and SEC history in all sports. In 31 seasons as an SEC coach, he has to date compiled a 1139-590-2 record. His career record stands at 1373-702-2. He currently ranks 8th on the all time wins list. His teams have won five SEC championships, including five SEC tournament championships. His teams have made it to the NCAA tournament 23 times, and have reached the College World Series 8 times. On March 27, 2008, he announced his resignation, effective the end of the 2008 season. 187 of his former players as a Head Coach have signed professional baseball contracts. 27 of these players have played in the major leagues He has coached 35 All-Americans and 76 All-Southeastern Conference players. Had 8 players picked in the first round in the professional baseball draft during his tenure at Mississippi State. He is one of only three coaches in college baseball history to coach at three different schools that have played in the College Word Series in Omaha, Nebraska. [More at Wikipedia]

January 12th, 1944 in Boston (Age 80)