O’Donnell: Lee Corso made it with a big boost from Jimmy Piersall and NIU football
WHEN LEE CORSO RECENTLY ANNOUNCED that he'll end his 37-season run on ESPN's “College GameDay” in August, some grayheads in his audience could probably remember the three Division-I schools he once coached.
That would be: Louisville (1969-72), Indiana (1973-82) and Northern Illinois (1984).
Career record: 73-85-6.
Almost none could name the all-time great Major League Baseball character who helped Corso launch his broadcast career on Chicago's WLS-Ch. 7.
That would be the late Jimmy Piersall and what a time in local TV mention of that tandem recalls.
THE CORSO-PIERSALL PAIRING CAME ABOUT because of the laser-precise decisions being made by Dennis Swanson, then the new station boss at Ch. 7.
Swanson arrived at the ABC o-and-o in 1983 to a culture in shambles.
Morale was bad, talent was uneven and the news operation — with Tim Weigel as a miscast lead anchor — was No. 3 in what was essentially a three-station derby.
WITHIN A YEAR, SWANSON HAD WEIGEL rightfully back in sports, coaxed Floyd Kalber out of retirement to anchor the 6 o'clock news and hired an unknown from Baltimore named Oprah Winfrey to host the daily “A.M. Chicago.”
He also acquired market rights to “Wheel of Fortune” and the refreshed Alex Trebek “Jeopardy!” station linchpins that carry on to this day.
TO STRENGTHEN CH. 7'S SPORTS FOOTPRINT in 1984, Swanson oversaw the start of three regional college coaches shows airing on seasonal Sunday mornings.
That triple included Weigel hosting “The Mike White Show,” aimed at Illinois fans, and Mike Adamle enlightening his fellow Northwestern faithful with “The Dennis Green Show.”
Leg 3 was Piersall going afield to entertain Northern Illinois rooters as compere of “The Lee Corso Show.”
THE COMBINE PROBABLY SHOULD never have happened. But the fact that it worked in spectacularly subversive fashion was a key accelerant on Corso's path to ESPN four years later.
Corso needed humor to wade through a 4-6-1 campaign. That was one year after Bill Mallory led MVP Tim Tyrrell and the Huskies (10-2) to a win in the California Bowl and then bolted for Indiana.
Piersall took the job very seriously and was a vastly underrated setup man. The show was produced under the aegis of John Hokin's Century Sports and taped late Saturday nights, after games, at WREX-TV in Rockford. Video was then driven by courier to Ch. 7.
YEARS LATER, WHEN HIS STARDOM AT ESPN was reaching its zenith, Corso told a Sun-Times Insouciant, “Jimmy Piersall was probably the most naturally talented sports-show biz guy I ever worked with.”
But the pairing was but a blur in TV time. Before Christmas 1984, Corso had departed DeKalb to accept a three-year, $450,000 deal to coach the Florida Renegades of the dying United States Football League.
He'll turn 90 on Aug. 7. He will work his final “GameDay” from Columbus three weeks later when Ohio State hosts Arch Manning and Texas. He has soldiered on since a stroke in 2009.
But all those headgear picks ago, Lee Corso had Jimmy Piersall, the NIU Huskies and vague dreams drifting over the midnight chill of the Rock River in downtown Rockford.
He didn't know it then, but Big and Rich were comin' to his football legacy.
STREET-BEATIN':
Anyone who had Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers scoring a quick KO over the Cavs in the second round of the NBA playoffs, please move toward the head of the cash. Haliburton's amazing miss-and-make to end Game 2 is one of the most phenomenal big-moment plays in the history of the league. Game 4 at Indy is Sunday (7 p.m., TNT). …
On the subject of longshots, Michael Reinsdorf and the hope-challenged Bulls have a 1.7% chance of winning the NBA draft lottery Monday (6 p.m., ESPN). And then it's 50-50 whether Deflation Twins Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley would be bright enough to take Duke's Cooper Flagg. (He would suffer severe teen culture shock next winter on West Madison Street.) …
Cade Horton or no Cade Horton, Cubs fans pining for a 2025 visit to Wrigley Field should be looking at ticket availabilities for the three-game series vs. Miami beginning Monday night. The White Sox limp in after that, followed by a six-game road trip and then the seasonal surge starts on Memorial Day against Colorado. (Jed Hoyer's summer theme: “My Kingdom for a Reliable Pitching Staff.”) …
Months and months of think time and the best the NHL's Salt Lake City group could come up with was the Utah Mammoth? A strong candidate would have been the Utah Frozen Oxen — “the UFOs.” (Teams of oxen were huge in the building of SLC.) …
John Lampinen — a Daily Herald Hall of Famer — notes that Chet Lemon was the last member of the White Sox to wear No. 2 before it was retired in honor of Nellie Fox. Lemon died this week at age 70; Lampinen, now watching the wheels after many deadlines as a key command officer under Dan Baumann and Doug Ray, is long overdue to turn his passion for All Things Nellie into a book. …
With ESPN set to jettison “Around the Horn” in two weeks — after a 22½-year run — the cable giant is running a gaggle of past contributors through valedictory appearances. The show has been losing viewers for years. Still, way back when, “ATH” and the Mike Wilbon-driven “Pardon the Interruption” were fresh, original concepts on the daytime TV landscape. Today, nothing is innovative. …
Hopeful times for Chicago broadcast stalwart Steve Kashul: Youngest son Troy will play football at hometown North Central College after a star prep career — including baseball — at Naperville Central. Elder son Cory is moving on to Norwich University in Vermont following two seasons with the Seahawks Hockey Club (of Cape Cod) of the Eastern Hockey League. (They're owned by Mike Sherman of Packers fame.) It has been 34 years since Steve the father debuted on SportsChannel/Chicago. …
And race-writing great Bill Christine, on the Triple-Frowning Preakness now looming without Sovereignty next Saturday: “The glow from the 151st Kentucky Derby had a lifespan of less than a tsetse.”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.