Corso Looks Forward to His Return to Bloomington

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Long odds? They just made Lee Corso more creative.

And to get Indiana football its first ever bowl win, the Hoosiers coach seemingly pulled the ultimate ploy:

Divine intervention.

IU clung to a 38-37 lead with 11 seconds left in the 1979 Holiday Bowl, but unbeaten Brigham Young was setting up for a 27-yard field goal.

It was a chip shot for dependable BYU kicker Brent Johnson, who had already connected three times from farther away during the game.

Corso called timeout and turned to Father Jim Higgins, a constant companion on the Hoosier sidelines, and said:

"Father, we need a prayer, and you've got to do your job. It's you versus six million Mormons."

So the St. Paul Catholic Center priest closed his eyes, then opened them and replied, "It's taken care of."

Johnson shanked the kick.

Corso exclaimed, "Thank you, God!"

Higgins said, "You're welcome."

Corso saw BYU coach LaVell Edwards later. "LaVell said that was the most devastating loss he ever had," Corso recalled earlier this month from his office in Sarasota, Fla. "It was one of his best teams ever, and he had a lot of great teams. They were unbeaten and ranked No. 9 and we were fourth in the Big Ten."

Corso now looks forward to watching Indiana again try to buck the on-paper odds, with the Hoosiers hosting No. 2-ranked Ohio State in the 2017 season opener for both squads.

The Thursday night contest attracted an ESPN national "Megacast" along with the network's celebrated College Football GameDay pre-game show—for which Corso has provided his colorful commentary and humorous hijinks over the past 30 years—to Bloomington for the first time ever.

"I'm really proud that I can show those guys Indiana University," Corso, who coached IU from 1973 through 1982, said of his GameDay colleagues. "Great institution. The most beautiful campus I've ever seen. Great people."

Corso never beat the Buckeyes during his decade at the Hoosiers helm, but came closed more than once, and sometimes utilized unconventional tactics (not all divine).

Facing a No. 1-ranked Ohio State squad at Columbus in 1975, Corso unveiled "The Elephant I," which significantly beefed up Indiana's usual I-formation.

"Ohio State had shut somebody down on 3^rd-and-short situations the week before," Corso said. "I analyzed it and we put in the

'Elephant I.'

"We put Bill Jones, at 310 pounds, behind the line between the guard and the tackle and (tailback) Ric Enis ran behind him for big yards the first half."

Corso figured OSU counterpart Woody Hayes would make halftime adjustments to counter the new formation.

"So, in the second half, we added Marlon Flemming, I believe it was, on the other side," Corso said. "Called it the 'Double Elephant I.'

"Whichever side they put the strong safety on, we'd run Enis right at them. Made every third down. It really did work out well. The big guys overpowered them. It was a close game (eventually a 24-14 Buckeye win) and Ric Enis was sensational."

Three years later, with the Hoosiers hosting a No. 19 Buckeye team in wet conditions, Corso had wideout Mike Friede slip into the backfield for third-down quick-kicks three times to help the Hoosiers control field position.

"There was a light mist falling all through that game, covering the field," Corso said. "Friede would punt the ball and it would slide on that slick turf, since they had no returner back there.

"Mike had to have averaged 60 yards a kick or more on those. We kept flipping the field on them. We almost won that one. Great game. Art Schlichter, as a freshman quarterback, took them the length of the field to beat us at the end (21-18)."

Corso doesn't think Indiana necessarily need resort to trickery to have a chance to win its 2017 opener.

"IU will have a shot," Corso said. "It's often a factor that there are a lot of Ohio kids on Indiana's roster. It seemed like about 90 percent of the kids I had were Ohio guys Woody couldn't take. They wanted to prove to Ohio State they could play.

"Ric Enis was the only player I ever got who had received a home visit from Woody Hayes. Ric lived in a house that was right on the Indiana-Ohio state line. I think his bedroom was in Indiana and the rest of the house was in Ohio. Terrific running back (first team All-Big Ten in 1977)."

All four captains of Indiana's 1977 squad—Tim McVay, Scott Arnett, Joe Norman and Charley Peal—hailed from Ohio.

"Joe Norman was one of the very best I ever had but just a tad bit too short for Woody.

"I'm sure the current IU team has a lot of Ohio guys (17), and I guarantee you one thing, (Cincinnati product and All-American linebacker) Tegray Scales and all of them feel that way—they want to show they can play. That's one game Ohio State has to watch out for, that Indiana game."

Norman, back in Bloomington a couple of summers back to help celebrate Corso's 80^th birthday, told the Bloomington Herald-Times how the coach recruited him out of Millersburg, Ohio.

"From the moment I met him he was different, not like all the rest of the coaches," Norman said. "He sold me on a vision and I wanted to follow him. I knew they weren't very good, yet, but I knew I could play and would get a chance to play. And I knew he was something special.

"The energy he brought to any room, any home he went into, was amazing. He brought that energy, that sense of humor, that Italian love. And when I got to IU, he was my dad away from home. He taught us a lot outside the lines, things I incorporate in my life to this day."

Indiana has a new head coach this season, with Tom Allen making his homefield debut after guiding the Hoosiers initially at last December's Foster Farms Bowl.

Corso thinks Allen, who turned around the Hoosiers defense as a coordinator last fall, is another reason for IU optimism heading into 2017. And Corso relishes the notion that the man Allen replaced—Kevin Wilson, who built Indiana's competitiveness over the past six seasons—returns to Bloomington for the opener as Ohio State's offensive coordinator.

"I've talked with Tom Allen on the phone two times and really enjoyed both conversations," Corso said. "Really solid guy, really solid coach. And he's got (new offensive coordinator) Mike DeBord, another really solid coach. He's put together a good staff, with good backgrounds. Coach Allen went out and got them.

"Indiana is a lot better than some people might think defensively. Coach Allen did a great job with them last year. It's a perfect situation, a great matchup, their defense against Kevin Wilson's offense and (Buckeyes senior quarterback) J.T. Barrett. It's like the perfect game set-up."

At the end of the first quarter, IU will present Corso with the Bill Orwig Award, named for the athletic director who hired Corso at Indiana and given to a non-alumnus who has made great contributions to Hoosiers athletics.

"I got the word from Mark Deal, my former center (and current assistant athletic director), that I was going to receive the Bill Orwig Award," Corso said, "So I was already fired up about being there before I even heard about GameDay going.

"I have never seen Indiana play football in person since I left, so that was already a real shot in the arm."

Corso noted Orwig presided over an Indiana coaching staff full of giants in their respective sports. Not including, he said, himself.

"Those guys were the best in the whole world—Doc Counsilman, Bob Knight, Jerry Yeagley, Sam Bell in track—they were as good or better as anybody on the planet," Corso said. "And there I was coaching football.

"You know, I coached at Louisville and Indiana for a combined 14 years, two of the greatest basketball schools in America. I had the right school but the wrong job!"

Corso remembered how Louisville native Muhammad Ali would watch U of L practices and games. And Corso then found some heavyweights when he got to Bloomington—on IU's schedule.

"One year we played Nebraska, LSU and Washington (all ranked in the top 15 in 1978) in the non-conference," Corso said. "We played Nebraska four years in a row. We hosted Southern Cal when they were ranked No. 2, then played them again the next year out in L.A.

"We beat LSU at home (24-21 in 1977). Their coach, Charlie McClendon, went home on Monday and they wanted to fire him. The Governor of Louisiana said any coach at LSU that loses to Indiana should be fired.

"We lost to LSU down there the next year in the opener (24-17) and, the night before the game, I took the team to the Ali-Leon Spinks fight at the Superdome (with Ali regaining the heavyweight title he'd lost to Spinks seven months earlier). Ali, what a guy."

Corso and the GameDay crew will fly south immediately after the IU-OSU game to prepare for Saturday's clash featuring No. 3 Florida State, Corso's alma mater, against No. 1 Alabama in Atlanta.

"So I get to see my college team and the (other) team I love the most—Indiana—in three days," Corso said. "The only way it could be better would be if Louisville was playing on Monday and I could see that.

"But I'm glad I'll be in Bloomington first. I always look forward to coming back to Bloomington, because I always get to see so many of my former players, and my friend Al Carpenter, and just all the great people there."

Corso's teams didn't always win, but he had a five-year period where his Hoosier teams went 28-27-1 (including a competitive 19-20-1 in Big Ten play) before his decade at IU concluded. And his memories are fond.

"We spent 10 years there and we raised our kids there and I loved every minute of it," Corso said. "Great kids and great schools there. It was a decade of my life I'll always be grateful for. Till you live there, you don't really know how nice it is, and I'll always appreciate the way people treated us.

"Indiana people are great. Great fans, too. They never gave me much grief. They gave me support. I did well in Louisville but couldn't win at Indiana, but they were great fans, loyal fans, dedicated fans."

Corso himself was a fan of Bloomington High School North football during his IU tenure, with son Steve starring for the Cougars before joining his dad's program.

"Steve made 335 yards rushing in one game, I believe against Columbus, but I never got to see him play because I was always with my team (on Friday nights)," Corso said. "But that just made me that much more grateful I got to coach him at IU.

"We beat Kentucky (36-30 in 1980) with Steve. Big rivalry game in Lexington, 28 seconds to go, called a post-corner route. In the backyard with Steve, when I'd throw passes to him, we called it 'the pine tree shot.' But down there in Kentucky, Tim Clifford threw it, about a 25-yard pass, for the winning touchdown to Steve. It was the greatest thrill I ever had in coaching."

Greater, certainly, than bringing his Hoosiers to Memorial Stadium in double-decker red buses for his IU coaching debut against Illinois in 1973. Or the Elephant I.

Or even that foiled BYU field goal.

"I don't know why I did all those crazy things, really," Corso said. "I didn't plan that sort of thing very often. It was usually pretty spontaneous. We had to do things a little different. We weren't very good. But we got better."

And who knows? During those phone calls with Allen, maybe Corso suggested a creative thing or two.

The Lee Corso era at IU
Highlights from 1973-82:
• Won three or more conference games for seven straight seasons, starting in 1976, the longest such streak in IU football history.
• Beat Bobby Bowden's 20th-ranked and previously unbeaten West Virginia Mountaineers, 28-14, in Corso's first season.
• Saw tailback Courtney Snyder post back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons in 1974 and '75 before he finished his career as IU's all-time rushing leader.
• Mentored IU's first win at Purdue in 14 years, 20-14, in 1976.
• Won consecutive Old Oaken Bucket games for the first time in 30 IU seasons.
• Beat both No. 16 LSU and No. 19 Minnesota in 1977.
• Saw First-Team All-Big Ten linebacker Joe Norman conclude his career in 1977 as the school tackling record-holder for a single game (26 versus Ohio State in 1978), a season (199 that same year) and a career (444.) Those marks still stand.
• Posted the biggest comeback in school history when, after trailing 26-3 against host Iowa in the 1979 season opener, rallying for a 30-26 victory that marked a fourth straight win over the Hawkeyes.
• Beat Kentucky three out of four tries (the best winning percentage in that series for any IU coach).
• Defended, in 1982, the Old Oaken Bucket successfully on Purdue soil for the first time since 1946.
• Finished 5-5 versus Purdue.

Corso Looks Forward to His Return to Bloomington

Players Mentioned

Tegray Scales

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