Lee Corso back at Indiana with ESPN College GameDay, 1979 Holiday Bowl

BLOOMINGTON – This weekend’s visit from ESPN College GameDay took on special meaning for all involved Saturday — it meant IU’s 1979 Holiday Bowl team could celebrate with its beloved coach.

Lee Corso led those Hoosiers to the program’s first-ever bowl win, a dramatic victory over previously undefeated BYU, in the Holiday Bowl 45 years ago. That team had already planned its reunion months in advance for this weekend. When GameDay, on which Corso has been a staple since its inception, announced last week it planned to make its first-ever Saturday stop in Bloomington, that made the date serendipitous.

“The Holiday Bowl team was very close-knit. We were a family in the truest sense,” said Terry Tallen, one of the captains of that team. “(Having Corso join the reunion) means the world to us.”

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That team honored its coach and its anniversary with multiple events this weekend, including a dinner Friday, during which Corso worked a room stuffed with 75 or so former players, assistants, trainers, support staff and more.

And perhaps the most memorable moment of the weekend came in the build-up to College GameDay, when Corso rode onto the set — erected on the south lawn of Memorial Stadium — on a double-decker bus with his team.

The moment was a nod to Corso’s first game as Indiana head coach, when he promised fans a special warm-up then had his team stretch and prepare on its practice field, before riding from that field into Memorial Stadium on a double-decker bus. Corso even wore the iconic red sweater he often sported on the IU sideline during his 10-year tenure.

“To me, the thing that means the most, to be quite honest with you, is the fact that we get to see him in person,” said Mark Deal, who was a graduate assistant for Corso and is now an assistant athletic director at IU. “I’m thrilled GameDay’s here. I’m thrilled we’re 7-0. But the chance to be with coach again? You gotta be kidding me.”

This year’s reunion, the first official get-together since the team’s 40^th in 2019, was tinged with sadness at the news of Tim Clifford’s passing last week. Clifford quarterbacked that team, winning the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as Big Ten MVP, before eventually being drafted into the NFL by the Bears.

Teammates plan to bring Clifford’s No. 14 jersey with them onto the field when they are honored between the first and second quarters of Saturday’s game against Washington.

In the intervening time, they’ll cheer on a nationally ranked, undefeated team making them proud with its performances.

After an eight-win season followed the 2019 reunion, and this one timed up with Curt Cignetti’s undefeated start to life in Bloomington, Holiday Bowl team members joke they should consider a similar get-together every year.

“As former players, we love what Curt Cignetti and his team are doing there,” Tallen said. “To watch Curt’s team now, it’s obviously a pleasure. He’s an outstanding head coach. He stands out to be as a real CEO type. I would call it a precise, military operation, the way the team plays. They don’t make mistakes. There’s nothing loose. It’s just precision.”

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