Jimmy ‘Kimo’ Ramos’ 55–year legacy leads to 1,160 wins
By Nicolas Esparza, March 3, 2026
From being a student athlete to serving as an assistant baseball coach for 45 years at Cal Poly Pomona, Jimmy “Kimo” Ramos earned a spot in the 2026 CPP Athletics Hall of Fame class.
Ramos has coached more than 65% of all baseball games at CPP and has been a part of more than 1,160 wins with the Broncos. As a player Ramos stole 14 bases in 37 games according to the Poly Post.
“As a young kid I had an idea of Cal Poly going to basketball games, football games and baseball games.” Ramos said. He then got his start at CPP in 1970 after attending Mount San Antonio Junior College. He made the decision to go to CPP because he had family who attended and worked at the school.
He was also interested in joining the Broncos baseball program because of head coach at the time John Scolinos, a CPP Hall of Fame coach and a member of the American Association of Collegiate Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.Ramos then came back to serve on Scolinos’ staff as the junior varsity head coach in 1972.
“He (Scolinos) was my mentor,” Ramos said. “Coach taught me and then taught me how to teach it.” Ramos worked as part of Scolinos’ staff for two Division II championship titles. Ramos’ uniform number, No. 1, was retired at ScolinosField In 2017, an honor only shared with his former coach and colleague.
Johnny Pappas holds CPP’s record for runs-scored, and after graduating, Pappas went on to briefly joined Broncos’ coaching staff, like Ramos.
“Coach Ramos is the guy where he’s 55 years removed playing the game, and he’s still showing up every day wanting to be here, wanting to be a part of the Pomona family,” Pappas said. “I would say that Coach Ramos represents not just the past of what Cal Poly Pomona represents in the sense of the success on the field, but also the future in the way that Coach Ramos is what everybody wants a future Bronco to be like.”
Currently, Ramos is on staff at CPP and has been consistently for the last 15 years. Ramos has coached at all levels of the game but sometimes steps away from Broncos baseball. His stints away range even internationally.
Ramos has also coached at the high school and at junior college level. He has worked for the Major League Baseball International Academy in China and managed the Philippines’ national team in the World Baseball Classic. He has even been an envoy coach for MLB, doing clinics and working to develop the game of baseball globally.
But every few years, he began to miss coaching the Broncos and came back.
“It’s nothing like the green and gold,” Ramos said. “I enjoy being around the players and helping them guide them through their journey through Cal Poly.”
Ramos added the players are what keeps him going and loves watching them develop. He said by the time students graduate, they have not only grown as players but have become better people because of the program.
Pappas said the most valuable lesson he learned from Ramos is how to enjoy the game. He talked about how failures in baseball can be discouraging, but Ramos taught him the importance of moving from one day to the next and how to be grateful for the time spent on the field.
“He puts a smile on all of our faces, and he still provides a lot in the sense of he knows the game of baseball, and he’ll find a way to teach you something new about the game that you had no idea about every single day,” Pappas said.“And he’s not one to shy away from a joke or two, so I definitely stole some jokes from Kimo.”
In addition to teaching what Scolinos once taught him, Ramos described himself as a happy-go-lucky guy in the dugout and enjoys spending time with players and coaches.
“I like kidding around with players, tease them, trash talk a little bit, and they understand that I’m just kidding around with them, and that makes it fun, and then the other coaches, they keep me sort of young because we kid around with each other too,” Ramos said.
When reflecting on his accomplishments at CPP, Ramos humbly described himself as lucky and credited all the head coaches he has worked with.
Feature image courtesy of Jimmy Ramos
