Lee Corso's impact felt far beyond 'College GameDay' audience

Copy Link

Email

Print

"Appreciate you, young man."

With all due respect to "Not so fast, my friend," those aren't the words that first come to my mind when I think of Lee Corso, who will be making his final "College GameDay" appearance Saturday at Ohio State. Instead, it's that first sentence. Because those are the first words I ever heard from Coach. Well, the first I heard in person.

By the time he said that to me, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 1994, I had already heard him say so many words, but always through a television speaker. I had been watching him on ESPN for seven years. When "College GameDay" debuted on Sept. 5, 1987, I was a high school student living in a college football-crazed house in…