The college football gods blessed Lee Corso with the perfect sendoff from “College GameDay.”
Corso appeared on the ESPN program for the final time Saturday after the he announced earlier this year that this year’s Week 1 show would be his last. The living legend received several tributes, both during the show and in the lead-up to it.
The 90-year-old’s co-panelists put on giant Corso-themed headgear to pay homage to his iconic “College GameDay” headgear pick ritual. He even got a standing ovation from airline personnel and his fellow passengers as he waited to board a flight to Columbus, Ohio a day before the show.
But for a football purist like Corso, nothing could have topped the unplanned present he received on the field. Every school he either coached or played for won its season-opening game on Saturday.
All of Lee Corso's college teams he played on or coached for won on Saturday 🧡
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) August 31, 2025
Meant to be 🥺 pic.twitter.com/br5nL1FQEu
Corso played quarterback and was a standout cornerback for Florida State in the mid-1950s. The modern-day Seminoles were heavy underdogs against No. 8 Alabama, but managed to pull off a huge upset to beat the Crimson Tide 31-17 in Week 1.
Corso began his coaching career as the quarterbacks coach at Maryland in 1959 and later became Navy’s defensive backs coach in 1966. On Saturday, the Terrapins clobbered the Florida Atlantic Owls 39-7, while Navy delivered an even bigger 52-7 beatdown against VMI.
Louisville, Indiana, and Northern Illinois all had Corso serve as their football program’s head coach sometime between 1969 and 1984. All three were victorious in their matchups as well.
The six Corso-connected teams won by an average margin of 23.3 points. Only Northern Illinois, which beat Holy Cross 19-17, won by fewer than two touchdowns.
The wins were a fitting bookend to Corso’s college football broadcasting career.
