Lee Corso has Sept. 5 circled on his calendar. That's the day ESPN's "College GameDay" will be live from the Alabama-Virginia Tech game in Atlanta.
It's also the day that Corso makes his return to live TV after suffering a stroke on May 16.
Corso, who turns 74 on Friday, told George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel that he has a new appreciation for life.
"I read this book that said 'if you survive a stroke,' " Corso said. "Hello — if you survive a stroke. They used the word survive. That scared the crap out of me. You don't read, 'if you survive a broken leg.' "
Corso's recovery is nothing short of remarkable. He was in critical care for a week and spent another five days in rehab before being released from the hospital. The stroke affected his right side and he had struggles with speech, writing and comprehension skills. He couldn't remember anything he had just read.
"When I first started I felt my tongue weighed 80 pounds," he said. "And I slobbered. I'm getting better at that. I'm trying to get the brain to realize that you can do this."
Corso fought back tears as he thanked the doctors, nurses and orderlies who bathed him during the first days in the hospital.
"The people who used to bring me my food and ask how I was ... They got your back and they do a good job. They care about you and they want you to get better. They didn't care who I was."
Diaz wrote that Corso "speaks fine now. There are a few quirky moments when things don't quite connect, like when he's trying to recall precise moments through the fog of recovery. A critical step was passing a swallow test, he says, 'inside the hotel (pause), inside the airport (pause), inside the hospital.' It took three times, but he finally found the right word."
Corso said: "The brain heals at its own pace. If I had a shoulder injury I could rehab it 10 hours a day for five days and it would be great, but not the brain."
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