By: Cody Bush, Associate Commissioner / Strategic Communications
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Jim Paronto, an Adams State graduate, head coach, and administrator, as well as head football coach and director of athletics at Colorado Mesa, is one of 11 members of the College Baseball Hall of Fame's 2024 Induction Class, the organization announced Friday night at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Paronto served the game of baseball as an umpire, coach, and administrator for more than five decades. He served as head baseball coach at Adams State, his alma mater, for four seasons (1974-76) while also serving as the Grizzlies' associate athletic director. He led Adams State to an NAIA District Championship in 1974 as head baseball coach, earning NAIA District Coach of the Year accolades. Paronto would then serve as Adams State's athletics director and head football coach simultaneously for three seasons (1977-80), concluding with an 8-3 record in 1980. Adams State inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
After turns at BYU and Oregon State, Paronto returned to Colorado first as a coach and teacher at Grand Junction Central High School. However, he returned to the college ranks in 1990 when he became head football coach and Assistant Athletics Director at Colorado Mesa (then Mesa State College) and eventually became the Mavericks' Athletics Director, where he served for four years (1994-98) in addition to his head coaching duties. Paronto led CMU to the 1990 RMAC football title and later was named the 1993 RMAC Head Football Coach of the Year.
In addition to his service as a coach and athletics administrator at various levels, Paronto was a longtime baseball umpire serving the Pacific-12 Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Junior College World Series. He worked the JUCO World Series 15 times and the Connie Mack World Series five times. He was the coordinator of umpires for the Mountain West (2003-21), Scenic West, and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (2015-22). He became the NCAA Baseball Rules Secretary in 2003 and served until 2015. He received his undergraduate (1966) and graduate degrees from Adams State College and a doctorate of education in athletic administration from Brigham Young University.
Paronto will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as one of two posthumous inductees. The 17th induction class will be honored at the Night of Champions presented by Prairiefire on Feb. 13, 2025, in Overland Park, Kansas, the home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The event will be the ceremonial start to the 2025 college baseball season, which begins Feb. 14, 2025.
Highlighting the 2024 class are Ohio University great and 12-time MLB All-Star Mike Schmidt, University of Texas legend and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, and Georgia Tech National Collegiate Player of the Year and three-time MLB All-Star Mark Teixeira. The class also includes five additional players, three coaches, and Paronto – a former umpire with a storied history in the college game.
About the College Baseball Hall of Fame
Each year, more than 190 representatives nationwide vote on the College Baseball Hall of Fame induction class. The voting body is comprised of national and regional college baseball media, active and retired coaches, former players, former inductees, college baseball historians and members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) collegiate baseball committee. The College Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2006. Since that time, 165 players, coaches, umpires, administrators and contributors have been selected for induction. Click here for a full list of College Baseball Hall of Fame classes.
About the RMAC
The RMAC is a premier NCAA Division II conference located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with 15 member schools. The RMAC sponsors 22 varsity NCAA sports and has produced 65 NCAA Division II national champions and 52 national runners-up since 1992.
#EverythingElevated