© Tim Peeler, 2025
Lee Corso almost didn’t make it through his second season as Florida State’s quarterback, much less 38 years of broadcasting on ESPN, thanks to a 1954 game at NC State’s Riddick Stadium.
“We’re going to drown, Buddy,” Corso told his college roommate as they lay at the bottom of a pile up at the Wolfpack’s one-time on-campus stadium. “We’re going to die right here on the football field.”
Buddy Reynolds, of course, became more famous as an actor when he changed his named to Burt and moved to Hollywood, pushed out of footballbecause of a game against the Wolfpack three years later.
On Oct.16, 1954, many people thought they were going to die, mainly because the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the North Carolina,Hazel, was still trailing its way across the East Coast. It made landfall the day before on the North Carolina-South Carolina border and caused some damage in Raleigh, including blowing the roof of the Riddick Stadium press box. In all, the Category 4 hurricane killed 95 people in the United States.
Florida State’s football team wasn’t sure their players would be healthy, either, having escaped the largest polio outbreak in state history, which was raging across the panhandle. It was a mild version of the rampant disease, but so pervasive it was later named “The Tallahassee Strain.”
None of that mattered to Lee and Buddy that night on the field that later became main campus’ biggest parking lot, as water streamed through the ear holes of their helmets. They were unable to get up because of the defensive tackles laying on top of them on the notoriously swampy field.
“We’re going to die,” Corso gurgled one last time.
They didn’t, of course. In fact, they went on win the game 13-7, as Corso rushed seven times for 22 yards. The decisive play was a controversial punt block in the fourth quarter that put a damper on Homecoming crowd of 9,000.
Corso had other opportunities to stand out against the Wolfpack, particularly during his 1956 return to Riddick Stadium. He was the star of the Seminoles’ 14-0 victory on Oct. 13, 1956. He scored the Seminoles’ first touchdown on a 35-yard run and set up the other with a 61-yard punt return.
“They have a fine player in that Corso,” said NC State coach Earle Edwards. “He was the difference. He had more to do with the outcome than any other individual.”
For the game, Corso had 10 carries for 108 yards, completed five of his run-option passes for 74 yards and had a big day as punt returner.
Corso did have another significant interaction with the Wolfpack at its new field, Carter Stadium. On Oct. 4, 1975, Corso was the head coach at Indiana, trying to get a scouting report on an undersized freshman running back in the Wolfpack backfield.
That running back, Ted Brown, had almost quit the team two weeks before, but was inserted into the starting lineup by Wolfpack coach Lou Holtz after his veteran tailbacks fumbled the ball away five times the week before in a regionally televised 37-15 loss at Michigan State. Brown was joined by fellow freshman Scott Wade, who gained 55 yards, and Ricky Adams, who gained 62.
Corso and his staff didn’t figure out a way to stop Brown, who rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns. The High Point native finished his career as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time rushing leader with 4,546 yards (plus 399 uncredited bowl yardage), a record he still owns almost a half century after his career ended.
“We just got beat,” Corso said after the game. “When you get beat, you take your bat and ball and go home, and you get ready for the next game.”
The next season in Bloomington, Indiana, Brown ran for another 141 yards on 23 carries with two more touchdowns against the Hoosiers.
On the positive side, no one drowned.
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