College GameDay announces location for Week 1, Lee Corso’s final appearance

[BleedGopher]

Per Davis:

College GameDay has announced its location for Week 1 of the 2025 college football season.

ESPN’s flagship pregame show will be on hand in Columbus, Ohio, as the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes host Texas to kick off the first full Saturday of the year. It was previously announced that Week 1 will be the final show for legendary GameDay panelist Lee Corso.

That means Corso will finish off his legendary broadcasting career in Columbus. It’s a full-circle moment for Corso and the show, as his first-ever headgear took place in Columbus way back on Oct. 5, 1996.

Here’s the official announcement from College GameDay:

College GameDay announces location for Week 1, Lee Corso's final appearance

ESPN has announced the Week 1 location for College GameDay in 2025, which will serve as the final show of Lee Corso's iconic career.

saturdaytradition.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[MNVCGUY]

Should be a great game to send out a legend.

 

[GopherTheJugular]

Lemme guess, his headgear "selection" will be a hybrid of both teams, like the big ten-gallon Texas hat with the buckeye on top of it, thereby not having to side with just one fan base.

 

[highwayman]

The guy has had quite a life. He's the kind of guy I'd like as a friend.

"Corso was born in Cicero, Illinois, on August 7, 1935. At age 10, he moved with his family to Miami and later attended Miami Jackson Senior High School, where he played quarterback. A baseball prospect, he was offered a $5,000 bonus to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers as a shortstop. However, he chose college, playing football and baseball at Florida State University (FSU), where he was a roommate of football player and actor Burt Reynolds and future University of Miami baseball coach Ron Fraser. While at FSU, Corso earned the nickname "Sunshine Scooter" for his speed on the football field. As a defensive player, he set the school record for most career interceptions (14), a record that stood for more than two decades until it was broken by Monk Bonasorte. Corso was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He was the starting quarterback for the South in the 1956 Blue-Gray Game, though his squad lost to the Len Dawson-led North team, 14–0."

"Corso coached at Indiana from 1973 to 1982, leading the Hoosiers to two winning seasons in 1979 and 1980. The 1979 regular season ended with 7–4 record and earned a trip to the 1979 Holiday Bowl. There the Hoosiers would beat the previously unbeaten BYU Cougars. Indiana's victory over the Cougars propelled the team to 16th in the UPI poll, the Hoosiers' first top-20 ranking since 1967. During one game in the 1976 season, Corso called a time out after his team scored a touchdown early in the second quarter. The entire team huddled together for a photograph with the scoreboard filling the background. It read: Indiana 7, Ohio State 6. It was the first time in 25 years that the Hoosiers had led the Buckeyes in a football game. Ohio State would win the game 47–7. Corso was fired after ten years with an overall record of 41–68–2 at Indiana.

Corso was the 16th head football coach at Northern Illinois University. In his lone season as Northern Illinois's head coach, Corso's record was 4–6–1.

After the stint at Northern Illinois, Corso made his professional football coaching debut for the Orlando Renegades of the United States Football League (USFL) in 1985."

"In the off-season, Corso serves as Director of Business Development for Dixon Ticonderoga, a Florida-based manufacturer of writing and arts products, including No. 2 pencils (one of which he can always be seen holding on College GameDay). In 2001, Corso spearheaded an effort to create a crayon completely out of soybeans."

 

[#2Gopher]

Nice write up Highwayman. After reading this, I was clearly out of touch as to his background.