RIP Commish: The legacy of Gene Corrigan is found in the stories he left us
If we are ultimately judged by the kindness we showed to others and the people and stories we left behind, then Gene Corrigan had a helluva life.
Corrigan, one of the most influential figures in the history of college athletics, passed away last Saturday at the age of 91. Corrigan, a four-year starter on Duke’s lacrosse team in the early 50s, was the director of athletics at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87). He became the ACC Commissioner in 1987 and spearheaded the movement to bring Florida State into the conference in 1990. He was also the president of the NCAA (1995-97).
He was a member of just about every Hall of Fame you can name. He and his wife Lena (66 years), have seven children, 19 grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
We could stop right there and you would have a very thorough summary of the extraordinary life one Eugene Francis Corrigan. But what you wouldn’t have is the richness and the color of Gene Corrigan’s life that is best illustrated by his stories.
My goodness, the stories:
**--My favorite will always be from 1995 when a very young coach, Rick Barnes of Clemson, challenged the reigning icon of the sport, North Carolina’s Dean Smith, during the quarterfinal round of ACC Basketball Tournament. Smith, whose team was comfortably ahead, had pointed a finger at a Clemson player (Iker Iturbe) after a hard foul on Jerry Stackhouse at the end of the game.
Barnes wanted to prove that he was not going to back down from Smith and told him “You coach your team and I’ll coach my team.”
The two were summoned to Corrigan’s home in Greensboro, N.C. and told, in not-so-delicate terms, that they had embarrassed the conference and to knock it off. Although I'm pretty sure Corrigan used much more colorful language.
Both coaches showed up with video tape to prove their respective points.
“I told them we weren’t going to watch any damned tape,” Corrigan told me during a private dinner years ago.
Corrigan fined the coaches $2,500 each.
“I finally got invited to Gene’s house,” Barnes hold Ed Hardin of the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record in 1995. “I don’t ever want to go back.”
The next day when we arrived at the tournament there was a makeshift sign on the Greensboro Coliseum.
“There’s a new sheriff in town.”
**--Corrigan liked the media and understood its importance as he tried to grow the ACC. He was one of the most accessible people I’ve ever met in college athletics. I can’t remember an interview where he ever said “This is off the record.” He told truth and if folks couldn’t handle the truth it was their problem.
The conference sponsored a pre-season football media tour to every campus in the conference. Corrigan wanted daily stories about ACC football in the newspapers and on television during the summer and was willing to subsidize the tour in order to get them.
Former ACC media relations director Brian Morrison called on Monday to share the conversations he had with Corrigan about the tour.
“I asked him what the budget for the tour would be,” Morrison said. “He said there was no budget and to spend whatever it took. Although he did say: ‘make everything first class except the plane tickets.’”
**--Corrigan was an affable Irishman but he would get feisty over things he thought were important.
He knew he would get some resistance to bringing Florida State into the league because some presidents privately wondered if the Tallahassee school was a fit for the buttoned-down ACC. Corrigan needed six of the eight schools to vote yes in order to invite FSU. During the conference call the vote kept coming back five for, two against and one abstention, which was the same as a “No” vote. Finally, Corrigan shut down the call and told everybody it would be resumed in about an hour.
Corrigan wouldn’t tell me exactly whose arm got twisted, but when the call resumed the vote was 6-2 and Florida State was in.
“I told the presidents we had to have Florida State,” Corrigan told me. “It wasn’t a request.”
Corrigan also told friends that if he couldn’t get Florida State into the ACC then maybe it was time for him to do something else.
**--Corrigan was named chairman of the National Football Foundation’s Honors Court, which picks the players who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame each year. The court included some of the giants of the sport such as Bo Schembechler, Vince Dooley, Archie Manning, Archie Griffin, Roy Kramer and Terry Donahue, just to name a few. Somehow I was invited to be on the court as well. I just always remember that whenever Corrigan moderated a discussion on a player, these strong men with strong personalities would all grow quiet and listen.
It was a sign of respect.
When a giant like Gene Corrigan passes, all we can do is pray for his family and count ourselves lucky that he crossed our path.
And what is what we do today.
RIP Commish.