3 hours ago 1

2025 Preseason Herbie Awards: Lee Corso named Legend of the Game

Every once in a while, a person is so deserving of an award, no other nominees are necessary. On Friday, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit named longtime College GameDay host Lee Corso the “Legend of the Game” Herbie Award winner.

“It’s been amazing having a chance to sit next to him for the last 29 years on this show, and he’s taught me so much,” Herbstreit said. “Sometimes it was just me subconsciously watching him early, going way back when I first started. And so many moments of just looking over at him, like, here I am thinking they hired me to be an analyst, and I do some X-O and he’s looking at me like, ‘Will you stop it?’

“There’s so many moments of just so much joy and laughter… I think what the entire show will really remember about Lee is how he would come into a Friday meeting, first one there, sitting in his seat, 20, 30 minutes before, pencil ready to go, ready to take his notes for the meeting. And, everybody that walked into that room, he hugged or smiled and just greeted them with the exact same way.

“… Just always had that big smile, always had that love and always had that energy. And I think the show will miss him, obviously on the air, but I think it’s how he impacted everybody from the bottom to the top, treated everybody the same, and that’s what we’ll really miss.”