LAKE MARY  |  Lee Corso is a household name, but not many know he’s been a Lake Mary resident for decades and credits his Catholic faith to, not only his career success, but his family unity and almost 70-year marriage.

To Corso, developing good football players was not enough. As a former athlete himself, he also wanted to develop good men. When asked how you do that, he said, “Faith is the secret.” He shared his theory for what his legacy might be.

“When businessmen die, they usually leave money. When a coach dies, he leaves pieces of himself all over the world in the players that he coached,” Corso said. “So, I tried to live a good life and show them a good life, faith-wise and while I was coaching them. And hopefully, when I die, part of me lives in every player I ever coached.”

To many he offered his simple guidance. “When in doubt, you have nothing but faith to rely on. I try to live life along with my faith, so that the players who were watching me saw my life for God illustrated in the way I treated them,” he said. “I did not force my religion on them, but I did, like it or not, force my faith on them.”

That’s because he and his faith are inextricably intertwined.

During a television tribute on Corso’s final Game Day on ESPN, Tom Jackson, a former Denver Bronco said the coach and analyst always treated him the same from his first day as a freshman to his later years as a Bronco’s Ring of Fame member. Even as Jackson was honored as someone to have greatly impacted the franchise, his coach always respected him as a person.

Darryl Hill, a former Maryland wide receiver from the 1963-64 season, told Corso he “changed the face of the game.” Hill was the first black student athlete to play football in the Atlantic Coast Conference and for a college in the South, thanks to the tenacity of then assistant coach Corso who refused to tow the line of discrimination and segregation. The action speaks to who he is.

Corso credited the foundation of his faith for helping him keep his celebrity from affecting his values. Born to devout Catholic Italian immigrants, Alessandro and Irma Corso, he said they tried to teach him the right way to live by having a good, religious background.

“When you start young and get basic principles put in you, you can keep them along the way,” he said.

Following in their footsteps, when he moved his family to Central Florida to become head coach of the Orlando Renegades in 1985, he put his four children in St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Winter Park.

“Faith was important to me, and it was a way to teach them the faith. Catholic school was a good way of keeping their religion important to them,” he said.

His daughter, Diane, teaches at the school, and her triplet ninth-graders attend Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando. The elder Corso also has seven other grandchildren.

Helping Corso stay strong in his faith and beliefs was mentor and former Ohio pastor, the late Father Jim Higgins. The priest accompanied him to every game he could.

“Father Higgins was a great friend of mine,” said Corso. “He taught me to treat every man even — that nobody was above it all. He taught me if there’s somebody, they’re important and treat them like they’re important. And continue to treat them like they’re important, no matter how they treat you.”

One of the most important people in Corso’s life is his wife, Betsy. The two come from different religious backgrounds. She is a devout Methodist and he a devout Catholic. Based on their mutual respect for one another, each worships God in their own way.

“We never had a conflict,” Corso said. “And she was understanding enough that I would raise my children Catholic when we got married.”

Asked the key to their marriage of 68 years, he said, “Having a wonderful wife and having her be forgiving, forgiving me of all my sins, … an understanding wife, one who loves you and you love her very much.” That love withstood him traveling the next 40 years, throughout the rest of his career as a coach and ESPN contributor, then analyst, until his final game day at Ohio State Aug. 30, 2025.

Known for forecasting the gameday winner by first putting Brutus the Buckeye mascot’s head on in 1996, Corso went on to do that another 400 times. Families all over the nation tuned in on Saturdays to watch his football pick, as if inviting a trusted friend into their home. He said of his travels, “I learned you treat everyone with class and dignity — everybody.”

Corso is a member of several Halls of Fame including Florida State Hall of Fame after playing there as an athlete, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Sports Media and Sports Broadcasting Halls of Fame to name a few.

As fate would have it, on the day of his retirement all six of the teams Corso coached won their respective games — Florida State, Maryland, Navy, Louisville, Indiana, and Northern Illinois. And all six of Corso’s picks from the segment on College GameDay were correct — Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, LSU, and Ohio State.

In his final GameDay show Corso said one thing he’s lived by is he never compromised his integrity or his truth. Always encouraging his own family to do the same he said, “I never prostituted my integrity to get a job or to keep one. If you do that, then you’ve got a chance of living a good life,” he said. “And always have faith over everything else. When in doubt, keep your faith and you’re bound to be successful.”

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, September 18, 2025