Tomorrow, College GameDay will say a final thank you to Lee Corso. After 38 seasons at the desk of ESPN’s flagship college football program, Corso is donning headgear for the final time on the network.
Tributes have poured in since the 90-year-old broadcaster announced his retirement earlier this year—all well deserved. Some have celebrated Corso’s love for the fun of college football. Others have shared personal reflections from colleagues who sat alongside him on Saturdays.
Week one will belong to fans across the country, but tomorrow will also close out a legendary career we may never see again.
Everything evolves with time. Sports used to air only on a few major networks, sometimes even tape-delayed. Sports programming channels like ESPN didn’t exist at one time. With time comes change and evolution in how sports are consumed.
Corso Never Changed
Corso witnessed it all. His impact is impossible to overstate. He was there at the launch of College GameDay in 1987 following a 17-year coaching career. From that moment forward, he traveled the country and helped elevate a sport built on passion, tradition, and pageantry. The spectacle of college football only grew larger with Corso in the chair.
He understood the challenge of balancing quality with authenticity—being critical while celebrating achievement, and having fun all at the same time. It’s football, sweetheart.
Tomorrow’s show will almost certainly become a three-hour celebration of Corso, as it should. There has been no single commentator who elevated college football quite like him.
“Lee Corso is maybe the single most impactful person in the history of the medium in relation to college football,” Paul Finebaum told me last month. “He just took a different approach. He gave thoughtful analysis, but he showed the underside of why we love college football. It’s the craziness of it. It’s the fans.”
If anyone would know Corso’s impact, it would be Finebaum.
“Coach Corso is one of the most influential TV personalities the sport of football has ever seen—not just college, but the sport of football,” Desmond Howard told me earlier this month. “He belongs on the Mount Rushmore with the likes of Keith Jackson and John Madden. They were so influential on the sport of football. To me, that’s the type of influence he’s had throughout his career.”
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end, as the lyric goes. What began in 1987 with Lee Corso at the desk ends tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio. A new beginning for College GameDay will start when the final headgear is worn.
That wasn’t all that made Corso a legend.
The Coach of College GameDay
Corso’s legacy goes beyond headgear picks. His humility made him larger than the sport itself. He laughed at himself as easily as he laughed with others. Corso didn’t have to be right with his predictions, but he never hesitated to stand by them. He never lost the coach’s instinct to teach, offering analysis and advice with an eye toward solutions.
He never lost the spirit of trying to help others, even if he hadn’t held a whistle in some time.
Above all, his energy was unshakable. Fans never saw a bad day from Corso. When the lights came on and the crowds started chanting, he was always ready. Whether in the early morning darkness on the West Coast or under the midday sun back East, Corso became the entertainer who set the tone for college football Saturdays.
He fought Will Ferrell on stage, once called a young boy a midget on stage, and crowd-surfed in Happy Valley. Corso was the grand marshal of college football’s weekly parade.
Generations welcomed Corso into their homes every Saturday, year after year. It was appointment television for many—all because of the identity, humility, and character that Lee Corso brought.
Lee Corso was a personality larger than the sport he covered and loved. A rare breed of analyst, he stuck to his lane and kept delivering year after year, with depth, knowledge, and a smile.
The phrase “Not so fast, my friend” will forever be ingrained in the lexicon of college football lore.
Kudos To ESPN
Paul Finebaum told me he wants to be in tears when high noon hits in Columbus. I look forward to seeing how ESPN handles tomorrow. They’ve done a masterful job of ramping up the excitement for one more Saturday morning with Coach.
Tomorrow, ESPN faces a tall task. When noon strikes in Columbus, College GameDay begins a new chapter. For the first time, the stage will not include an original cast member. The show will evolve as it always has, but it will do so without its heartbeat.
As Corso dons the headgear and gives a royal wave one last time, let’s all give our thanks for his efforts in making Saturdays about football, fun, and family for the last 38 years. We may never see another figure elevate a sport the way Lee Corso has. Chances are, we never will.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
Great stuff! I teared up as well. As the old NBC slogan stated, Lee Corso was “must see TV”. Loved Finebaums analogy that he’s on the Mount Rushmore of broadcasters with Keith Jackson and John Madden.