Seminole County honors college football icon with Lee Corso Day

ESPN host Lee Corso said he hopes to be remembered as “somebody that made you smile.”

The Seminole County Commission voted on Tuesday to proclaim Aug. 26, 2025, “Lee Corso Day,” honoring the legendary College GameDay host and longtime Lake Mary resident. 

Corso has been one of the hosts of ESPN’s College GameDay since its inception in 1987. After over three decades of bringing joy to millions with his humor and charm, the 90-year-old analyst has decided to call it a career.

Corso’s last show will be this Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, for the Texas vs. Ohio State game — the campus where he put on the head of the OSU mascot as his first head pick back in 1996.

“It’s going to be very emotional for me,” Corso said. “This is the end of my career, so it’s just ironic to go back.”

Corso has lived in Lake Mary for years and said he can’t emphasize enough how grateful he is for the support of his hometown.

“I really do appreciate this, especially from my hometown, people that I love very much,” Corso said. “There’s no place like home, and Seminole County is my home.”

Corso’s neighbor and longtime friend, Roger Pynn, praised Corso’s drive and selflessness, saying he is just as kind off-camera as he is on-camera. He said the lake they live by is even named after Corso.

“He really doesn’t want to stop it. I know him as a very kind, community-oriented guy,” Pynn said. “He would never turn someone away. He’d come and be there when you needed.”

Even after traveling to numerous college campuses over the years, Corso said that nothing will ever be as special to him as Lake Mary and Seminole County are.

“I’ve been all over the place, but there’s no place like Lake Mary,” Corso said. “It means so much to me that people would say these nice things.”

Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine said his mother would call him every Saturday to tell him what headgear Corso had picked. 

“Today is a great day for Seminole County,” Constantine said. “So folks, ‘Not so fast, my friends,’ today we’re going to talk about the face of college football for the last 40-plus years.”

A Florida State alumnus and former football player, Corso held the FSU record for interceptions before becoming a graduate assistant on the coaching staff. He would go on to coach the likes of Navy and Indiana, where he led the Hoosiers to their first bowl win in school history. Corso would then go on to coach the Orlando Renegades of the short-lived USFL, after being approached by owner Don Dixon.

“I was the coach at Northern Illinois, and it was cold one night, and my friend Don Dixon came up to me and he said, ‘How’d you like to be the coach of the Orlando Renegades?’” Corso said. “I said, ‘You got a man right here.’ I couldn’t wait to get down here.”

Corso’s wit caught ESPN’s attention and, a couple of years after his brief tenure with the Renegades in 1985, he joined College GameDay as an analyst in 1987. 

“I think [humor] was part of it and the fact that I would take the job and do it for nothing,” Corso said. “Humor has always been my soul.”

Corso’s humor quickly made him a fan favorite, a status that still holds today. With his trademark mascot headgear picks and catchphrases, Corso became a sports icon and the face of college football.

“There are certain figures in sports media that are iconic,” Jeff Sharon, managing editor of the UCF-focused sports news site Black and Gold Banneret, said. “In the NFL, it’s the late John Madden. In college basketball, it’s Dick Vitale. And for college football, it’s Lee Corso.”

Sharon said Corso is very special to Central Florida and that he hopes the recognition means as much to him as it does to the community.

“Everyone loves Lee Corso, but he has a very special place in Central Florida’s heart because he’s from here,” Sharon said. “I remember when UCF hosted College GameDay for the first time back in 2018, and they actually dressed him up in the Knightro costume.”

Corso fondly remembers when GameDay came to UCF in 2018, when he donned the Knightro suit in the Florida heat.

“I think it was one of the best shows we ever had,” Corso said. “There were thousands of people, and I put the Knightro suit on. I almost suffocated, but it was worth it.”

Corso said it was time to retire.

“It was time, the traveling got to be too much,” Corso said. “It was time for me to pass it on to somebody else and wish them luck.”