College Baseball Central complements its coverage of Southeastern Conference baseball by returning our feature series on Mississippi State's Ron Polk Ring of Honor. Now in its seventh class since 2019, CBC writers Doug Kyle and Bo Carter team up again to provide insight into the 2025 class of honorees, pitcher Mike Proffitt, outfielder Ted Milton, and infielder/outfielder/pitcher Mitch Moreland. Today, we profile a four-year starting pitcher who in 45 career appearances completed 33 games and won 30, Mike Proffitt.
By Doug Kyle
The late Mike Proffitt was well known for his skill on the baseball field, the pitching mound in particular. He was a four-year starter, a two-time Southeastern Conference champion, an NCAA District/Regional champion, and the starting pitcher in Mississippi State’s second game in Omaha, NE, at the 1971 College World Series, MSU’s first ever appearance in the event. And, he would always remind you that as a green freshman in 1969, he'd struck out a shortstop from rival Ole Miss named Archie Manning.
It’s those collective talents and accomplishments that already had him in the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame 1993 class, and it’s now earned him induction into the Ron Polk Ring of Honor, this year’s ceremony on April 5 at Dudy Noble Field that will enshrine Proffitt, teammate Ted Milton, and 2005-07 star Mitch Moreland.
But, Mike Proffitt was much more than that. His wife Harriet laughs that on his recruiting visit to State, the winning factor may have been Assistant Coach Tom D’Armi taking him fishing. It’s not known if D’Armi brought the papers along and had them signed before they got out of the boat that decisive day. But, appealing to two of Mike's great loves, playing baseball and fishing, just may have been all the Birmingham, AL native needed to see.
Mike Proffitt was both the Most Outstanding Senior Athlete and a husband during his last season in the maroon and white, he and Harriet marrying over the Christmas holidays. Harriet explains the timing as leaving no obstacles for Mike to go straight into professional ball as soon as the 1972 Mississippi State season ended.
And straight into the minors he went. Proffitt was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 15th round of the 1972 Major League draft, a whirlwind “here today, somewhere else tomorrow” life that Harriet remembers had them moving 14 times in a three-year stretch through Iowa, California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, sometimes overnight. “He would get a call after a game that said ‘Proffitt, we need you in, say, Little Rock, tomorrow.’ Next morning, he had to go turn off the utilities, catch a flight to meet the team, and I would follow driving. He was excited about the move up, and it was really a fun and exciting life for us back then.”
When Proffitt’s years of throwing a baseball for a living ended, he looked to a different career. It took him back to Brookhaven, MS, Harriet’s hometown and their offseason residence, where Mike and Harriet built a house and he pursued employment from his MSU business degree. After a couple interviews, Mike landed a job as the Executive Director of the Brookhaven Housing Authority, where he remained the rest of his life.
And Harriet and Mike began their lives as the Proffitt family. After they had lost a son Scott during Mike’s last season in Tulsa, they welcomed daughters Sally and Molly. Harriet recalls Mike was a great girl daddy, doing all the Girl Scout things, the dance recitals, tennis matches, and softball games. “If it had anything to do with a ball, he insisted on teaching them himself!”
Mike had always been a protective type, even when he and Harriet were at State. “Sometimes I’d sit in those wooden bleachers, splinters and all, and it was cold the first part of the season. But, he did not like me going out into the rowdy left field. My parents came up from Brookhaven to watch him pitch, and they sat in their car on that plateau just beyond right field!”
As many ballplayers are, Mike Proffitt was also superstitious, Harriet recalls. A common one, he would not step on the cut of the grass. As a youth, his mother would hide a four leaf clover in the seams of his cap. When warming up before an inning, he had to throw two fastballs, two curve balls, and two sliders, in that order before the catcher could throw down to second. The resin bag had to be in a certain spot, and Proffitt habitually snacked on a Susie Q cake and Dr. Pepper in the bottom of the third inning. Whether all of those things influenced Proffitt’s stellar performance, who knows, but he believed they did.
Without getting tedious with statistics, Mike’s accomplishments were many. He broke the SEC career record for wins his senior year, ironically eclipsing his own teammate Brantley Jones, and finished with 30 wins. It was a mark not exceeded until years later with Jeff Brantley’s 45 (1982-85) and Bobby Reed’s 35 (1987-90). One mark not likely to ever be repeated at MSU, maybe even in the SEC or NCAA, was Mike’s 33 complete games, meaning he finished most of his victories and even several games in which he wasn’t the winning pitcher.
Harriet remembers the camaraderie of the team and some of the nicknames they had for each other, “Yard Dog” for fellow 2025 Ring of Honor inductee Milton, who was also Mike’s roommate for three years. Fellow pitcher Gene Henderson was called “Whoopstick,” and Dave Phares, a fellow outfielder with Milton was “Groovy Dave.” The source of those nicknames in some cases might be rated R, so please, don't ask in mixed company. Mike sort of had one, Harriett and Milton recall, Proctor. It came out of Head Coach Paul Gregory’s trouble remembering “Proffitt.”
There were great teams during the years Mike pitched for State, and he often credited the great people on those teams with him for the many records he set. Proffitt came from a baseball-rich environment in Birmingham, AL, where even in the late 1960s, his high school played 40+ games a season while others were scheduling only in the neighborhood of 15.
Proffitt was drafted in the 22nd round out of high school by the Kansas City Royals. He was friends with State player Bill Rorie and had also followed the back-to-back SEC Championships by State in 1965-66. When he made his visit to MSU in 1968, it was to an immaculate second-year Dudy Noble Field that may appear modest by today’s standards but in those days was pristine. Rorie had told Proffitt, and he later saw it for himself, it was the best facility in the SEC.
The pitching philosophy was also different in Mike’s days, with an emphasis on completing a game. He relieved only once or twice during the 45 games of his career. On one occasion, Proffitt was knocked out early in the first game of a Friday doubleheader at Ole Miss and still convinced Gregory to start him Saturday in the third series game. The game in which Mike was knocked out, State rallied to win 15-12 in extra innings on a Milton home run, and Proffitt was the winning pitcher in the 5-3 finale.
Proffitt’s professional career with the Cardinals organization was relatively short, three years, but he made the AAA club his second season. He was often called back and forth between AAA and AA, and his AAA club won the American Association championship twice.
What would David Michael Proffitt say today when he learned of his selection for Mississippi State’s baseball-specific highest honors? He’d probably say something similar to his response to being inducted in the MSU Sports Hall of Fame.
As the news reached him in 1993, 21 years after his last game as a Bulldog, Mike replied he was “surprised, shocked,” and “hadn’t really thought much about it.” But, he was “very thankful (he) was able to be a part of those teams and a part of Mississippi State.”
And, the honor means a lot to Harriet, who will speak on Mike’s behalf at the induction ceremony, and the Proffitt family. “It’s just a great honor to see Mike and those State teams recognized. All the times we were together, he was just Mike to me. I’m not sure exactly when, but at one point, I realized just how good he was. It’s fun to show my daughters the old pictures of him and Dudy Noble Field and tell them, ‘That’s where your dad played.’ He loved playing college baseball, he loved playing at Mississippi State, and that emotion was still there years later when he’d watch the College World Series. The feeling never left him his whole life.”
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