The countdown to Lee Corso’s final appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” will kick off when the longtime analyst and former coach is honored at the ESPYS on Wednesday night.
“This is a unique opportunity we have to weave him into the evening and really begin the process of sending him off with full honors,” ESPN’s president of content Burke Magnus said. “To get him there in person to acknowledge all of his contributions and what he’s meant to both the company and sports, but more importantly the fans, we just think it’s a fitting way to kick off his departure.”
Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee will give their thoughts about Corso before a video tribute airs. Corso will then have a couple of minutes to be acknowledged by the crowd at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Corso — the lone remaining member of the show’s original cast who turns 90 in August — announced earlier this year that his final show would be on the opening week of the season. ESPN last month revealed the 39th season of “GameDay” would begin in Columbus, Ohio, before defending national champion Ohio State hosts the Texas Longhorns on Aug. 30.
Corso’s popular headgear segment started at Ohio State on Oct. 5, 1996, before the Buckeyes faced Penn State. Since then, he has gone 286-144 in 430 selections wearing everything from helmets and mascot heads to dressing up as the Fighting Irish leprechaun from Notre Dame, the Stanford tree and historic figures James Madison and Benjamin Franklin. He has worn 69 different school’s mascot headgear.
His television career withstood a stroke in 2009 that left him unable to speak for a while. Even though his appearances on the road have decreased in recent seasons, he was in Atlanta in January for the College Football Playoff national title game between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
“With the popularity and cultural phenomenon that ‘GameDay’ became, there’s no one more responsible for that than Lee Corso. The way he changed the way the game was covered with the irreverence, the humor, the lack of a filter, all of those things that sort of set the tone and the standard,” said “GameDay” host Rece Davis.
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