ESPN announced on Monday that legendary analyst and former Indiana, Louisville and Northern Illinois head coach Lee Corso will retire following his week one appearance on College Game Day. Corso, who will turn 90 on August 7, is an alum of Miami Jackson High School.
Corso was born in Cicero, Illinois, a suburb bordering Chicago. When he was 10, Corso moved with his family to Miami. Corso was offered a $5,000 signing bonus out of high school to play shortstop in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. Corso chose to attend Florida State to play baseball and football instead of the minor leagues.
It is well known that Burt Reynolds was a roommate of Corso's at Florida State. Former Miami national championship baseball coach Ron Fraser was also a roommate of Corso at Florida State. Corso remains third all-time in Florida State history with 14 career interceptions after holding the record for about 20 years.
Corso began his career as a coach as a graduate assistant at Florida State in 1958. The first full-time job for Corso was as the quarterbacks coach at Maryland from 1959 through 1965. Corso left Maryland for Navy, where he was the defensive backs coach from 1966 through 1968.
quick reflections and tribute to a dear friend and living legend, with word now official that #leecorso is retiring from @CollegeGameDay after one huge send off!
— Chris Fowler (@cbfowler) April 17, 2025
much more to come. Love you, LC! pic.twitter.com/V2Q15Qi795
Corso left Navy to become the head coach at Louisville in 1969. In four seasons at Louisville, Corso was 27-11-3. Indiana hired Corso from Louisville in 1973. In 10 seasons at Indiana, Corso led the Hoosiers to a 41-68-2 record in 10 years before he was fired after the 1982 season.
After a year off, Corso led Northern Illinois to a 4-6-1 record in 1984 and the Orlando Renegades of the USFL to a 5-13 record. Amazingly, Corso never got to lead a team in his hometown as a head coach. Corso began his broadcasting career with ESPN in 1987, where he has been ever since.
One of my favorite memories in college was the time I was tasked to bring Lee Corso the Sebastian headgear, he was going to pick Miami to upset VT on @CollegeGameDay in Blacksburg.
— Alfonso Restrepo (@305Fonzi) April 17, 2025
Coach Corso went out of his way to be incredibly kind to a bunch of college kids. Thank you Coach! pic.twitter.com/gtN0L9sEoX
ESPN GameDay did not go on-site until the November 13, 1993, game for top-ranked Notre Dame and number two Florida State. Before the appearance in Tallahassee, GameDay was in-studio in Bristol, Connecticut. Miami has appeared on College GameDay 25 times and hosted eight.
ESPN CollegeGameDay was not on campus in Coral Gables until 2017 for the game versus Notre Dame that Miami won 41-8. Florida State versus Miami has been on College GameDay eight times, with the Hurricanes winning five of those games. Corso is 13-9 all-time picking Miami headgear games.
Corso is a college football legend, and Miami was a big part of that for at least half of his time on the college football premiere pregame show. The career for Corso began as a high school star in South Florida. Without his time at Jackson High School, the career path for Corso might have taken an extremely different direction.