Lee Corso

For the last few years I have had the privilege of attending a relatively intimate small-group dinner with ESPN College Game Day's Lee Corso a couple of weeks before the start of the college football season. The dinner is put on by the Central Florida Chapter of The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an association of which I have been a charter member since 1989. It's a real fun group of trial lawyers, mostly Gators, 'Noles and 'Canes with a scattering of 'Dawgs, Vols, Tigers, Cocks, Ivy Leaguers and other oddballs --about fifty members all together. One of the members of our group, David Corso (Longhorn), a good friend and colleague, is Lee Corso's son and he is obviously the reason why we have been able to convince Lee to attend our dinners just as the excitement of the upcoming season begins to heat up. Another member is Stumpy Harris --the legendary Bull Gator of all Bull Gators-- who was featured in an article in Fortune Magazine a couple of years ago because he has personally donated millions --and raised hundreds of millions more over the years-- to the UF Athletic Association. Lee Corso actually played football for FSU (QB) back in the fifties and was a room mate of Burt Reynolds who also played for FSU before heading west to Hollywood. So Corso, naturally, is a BIG 'Nole. The repartee and jibes and general fun between Lee Corso and Stumpy Harris and the rest of the Gators (including yours truly) are worth the price of admission, which, come to think of it, is free to charter members. This year, Lee Corso was scheduled to join us again at our annual pre-season dinner which is going be held tomorrow in downtown Orlando. Unfortunately he won't be able to make it this year because he suffered a stroke in May and is still recovering from it. He plans to be ready to go on national television September 5 for this season's opener of "College Gameday" in Atlanta for the Alabama - Virginia Tech game. He will not make any public appearance before then because he is furiously rehabbing for "The Big One." National Television. Live. No safety net. Over the past few years I have really come to respect and admire Lee Corso. He is one of the great and wonderful human beings in this world. In person he is every bit as funny and engaging as he is on t.v. He is also remarkably warm and kind --and opinionated as all get out! A couple of years ago (August of 07 to be exact), I went up to him after the dinner and asked him how he thought the Gators were going to do in the upcoming season. He told me they were going to go 9-3 and would not make it to the S.E.C. title game. He thought our offense was championship grade but our defense was decimated by departures to the NFL and would not be able to hold the line during our gauntlet through the S.E.C. He told me we would lose to Georgia and LSU and maybe even to Auburn. I didn't agree with him then but he turned out to be right on all counts, which probably explains why I am mediating in Orlando and not doing College Gameday on national television. I am going to miss him at this year's dinner. I am praying for his recovery and will be watching College Gameday on the morning of Sept. 5 (the Gator opening game that day is a night game at The Swamp --I'll be there too!). I also plan on sending him a letter, via his son David, wishing him well and telling him how much I appreciate him. Attached is a link to a really good article in the Orlando Sentinel about Lee Corso's struggle to recover after his stroke which is worth the read by Sentinel sports writer George Diaz (another Cubano): Lee Corso - Stroke- Orlando Sentinel