College football icon Lee Corso set for final ESPN appearance after 38 years

He's been known as the godfather of college football Saturdays for close to 40 years

The grandpa that made the best pregame show in sports history so much fun

This Saturday, 89-year-old Lee Corso will make his final appearance on ESPN's College Game Day

Corso's outspoken picks and opinions were often punctuated by donning the headgear of the team mascot he thought would win

He's worn more than 400 mascot headgears in his 38 years on the game day set

It's a college football tradition, and Saturday at Ohio Stadium in Columbus

Brutus the Buckeyes mascot head will likely be waiting for Corso during a ceremony at midfield

But not so fast, as Coach Corso loves to say, while putting the brakes on any debate about who is going to win

Corso's impact went well beyond broadcasting and mascots, as the show's original host Chris Fowler said Tuesday

He's such a beloved guy. I think when reality hits and you get out there and you realize that we won't see that again

that's when I think people are going to start to lose it. I mean, I think the show will go on. Game day is a powerhouse

But Lee Corso has brought something to not just game day, but the sports TV landscape that is wholly unique

Corso joined ESPN in 1987 following a 28-year coaching career at the college and pro levels

including 17 seasons as a head coach at Louisville, Indiana, Northern Illinois, and in the USFL

ESPN honored him at this summer ESPY Awards and co Kirk Herbstreet has called him a father figure I feel like I had the best seat really in all of college football for these last 30 years right next to coach right before he pulled that headgear out or say something that nobody else

would say. There's so many lessons and such a special bond that I'm so lucky to share with one

of the great spirits and great minds that college football has ever seen. Herbstreet and others

working at the network said Corso was always a coach first and taught them life lessons. Most

importantly covering the game should be fun one of his favorite sayings is we're in the entertainment

business and college football is the vehicle it's a sentiment that generations of fans and even those

working in today's game recognize another great ambassador of the game just somebody who's been

positive and builds people up and you know he's somebody that i remember um you know just so many

years of you know putting on the mascot heads and just making um you know saturdays so enjoyable

for so many people enjoyable indeed even when the game is rained out in august of 2000 i was covering

a game in blackspur virginia between the hokey's and georgia tech when the game was postponed by a

big thunderstorm the game j crew was there too and famously corso's car was struck by a massive

lightning bolt after he had picked against Michael Vick's Hokies to play for the national

championship. Soon after my photographer and I arrived at the hotel a lone car pulled up

The door opened and out hopped the coach. As he walked quickly by he looked at us and said

I found the one Hokie fan who would take mercy on me. College Saturdays won't ever be the same

For Straight Arrow News I'm Chris Francis