Lee Corso Thanks College Football Fans for 'Well Wishes' After Retirement Announcement

Corso will be 90 at the time of his final show.

ESPN College GameDay host Lee Corso on on Dec. 21, 2024. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

College football fans were dealt a huge blow on Thursday when ESPN legend Lee Corso, a longtime analyst on the network's College GameDay, announced he'd be retiring come the fall. When he works his final show on August 30, he will be 90 years old.

After the news broke, tributes to Corso immediately flooded social media, including one from fellow GameDay analyst and Corso's de facto social media spokesperson Kirk Herbstreit. The latter then followed up that post on Friday, in which he shared a message of gratitude from Corso himself.

The 89-year-old is not on social media, so it stands to reason that he didn't see most of the retirement-related comments from fans and fellow pundits. So to counter that, Herbstreit gave Corso a call to get him up to speed.

"Ya gotta know our guy doesn’t have a computer let alone social media … haha … so I called him just now to make sure he knew how much the CFB community has been pouring out their love for him," Herbstreit wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "As we talked about other things, we were about to hang up and he said, 'Hey Kirk, can you put up on your Facebook or Twitter or whatever it is how much I appreciate all the well wishes? It really means a lot to me.' And I told him, 'I don’t have Facebook but I’ll definitely send out a tweet to let people know how much you appreciate it.'

"It’s hard to let go I’m sure—but he really sounds like he’s at peace and it’s the right time. God bless him—he’s the best!"

Herbstreit finished off his message with a photo of him and Corso, which was captured by photographer Scotty Clark at the Rose Bowl last year.

Take a look at that below:

Ya gotta know our guy doesn’t have a computer let alone social media…haha…so I called him just now to make sure he knew how much the CFB community has been pouring out their love for him..as we talked about other things we were about to hang up and he said “hey Kirk can you put… pic.twitter.com/qtvQkF9IYH

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) April 18, 2025

Corso is the only original member of College GameDay who is still with the show. He joined ESPN in 1987, following a 28-year coaching career in both collegiate and professional football. His presence at the desk each week will be greatly missed.

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