Walking into the offices at Corrigan Sports headquarters in Elkridge, Md., it's easy to notice the Under Armour All-American game jerseys. And the vertical Maryland Roughriders sign. Lining the walls of the office are various banners representing the events Corrigan Sports hosts — running festivals, field hockey tournaments, flag football and a handful from lacrosse events.

The banners and jerseys serve as aesthetics for the main lobby at Corrigan Sports, a sports marketing and event management company founded by Lee Corrigan in 2000, but they represent a bit more. Corrigan, the man behind it all, was born to work in the world of sports — especially in lacrosse. It’s in his blood.

He is the son of former Penn athletic director Dick Corrigan and nephew of former ACC commissioner and Virginia lacrosse legend Gene Corrigan. His cousin, Kevin, currently coaches Notre Dame lacrosse. His brother, Booker Corrigan, is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN.

“My entire family. It seems like everyone has played lacrosse, coached lacrosse, or something administratively in lacrosse across the generations,” he said. “Being a lacrosse guy and having a lot of lacrosse guys in the house, we were all in love with it.”

Corrigan had high hopes for his company when he hit the ground running, and it has become his passion. Corrigan Sports started with just three employees and has since expanded to 25, housing events around the country.

“I decided to follow the American dream and have my own sports event marketing company,” he joked. “Look out, of course, you may get what you want.”

Corrigan Sports’ first event was the Baltimore Marathon, which has become an annual fixture for the city each fall. It took just a handful of years for Corrigan to connect his company with lacrosse — a sport that spans generations in the Corrigan family.

Since then, Corrigan has developed relationships with both the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association and the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association, in addition to spearheading the effort to establish the Under All-America Lacrosse Games.

Now, lacrosse makes up over half of Corrigan Sports’ business — something of which Corrigan, the founder and a coach with Maryland Roughriders, is extremely proud. Corrigan himself played as a child and traveled to England alongside US Lacrosse CEO Steve Stenersen on a USILA All-Star team.

“Taking the step into lacrosse was pretty easy,” he said. “Certainly when we looked at the landscape and felt like we could be really successful doing it. That’s where it started. … [Lacrosse is] all in the blood here. That’s what really attracts all of us to it.”

It didn’t take long for Corrigan to find a connection in the lacrosse world. After attending tournaments for his son, Brian, he knew his company could find success in the space.

As the years went by, Corrigan’s company was expanding and living by the slogan “from conception to fruition” — meaning it would help organize events from the beginning to end. It was never truer than when he worked with Under Armour to develop the All-America Lacrosse Games.

Having already paired with Under Armour for the Baltimore Marathon, Corrigan was excited when the idea popped into his head. Why not have an all-star game, much like basketball’s McDonald’s All-American game, to showcase prospective college athletes?

He pitched the idea to Under Armour and it was a hit. The Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Games started in 2005 and has become the premier showcase event for high school seniors in lacrosse. The event has since expanded to multiple regions. The tryouts for both the All-American teams and their subsidiaries have become popular recruiting events for coaches across the country, even for the players that didn’t make the cut.

“Sure, if you make one of the regional teams, you’re set,” Corrigan said. “You are going to be heavily recruited. But what makes me even more proud is the kids that don’t make the teams get recruited at our tryouts. There are thousands of stories just like that, of kids that didn’t make the team. But that’s where their recruiting process started.”

The relationship with Under Armour wasn’t the only involvement Corrigan Sports had in the sport of lacrosse. By the late 2000s, Corrigan Sports added multiple IWLCA events, through a friendship with executive director Gothard Lane. Now it hosts the Presidents Cup, Champions Cup and other IWLCA events.

US Lacrosse has also worked with Corrigan Sports on organizing the Summer Rumble, which took place June 9-10 just outside of Richmond, Va., as a qualifying event for US Lacrosse Nationals. Corrigan Sports is a sanctioning partner of US Lacrosse.

“I see US Lacrosse as a body that’s trying to bring this incredibly fragmented lacrosse landscape and trying to pull it under an umbrella,” he said. “What attracted me to the relationship was the standards — what US Lacrosse is trying to do in terms of the standards of lacrosse events. That’s really important to me.”

In addition, Corrigan Sports hosts the IMLCA National Cup in June and has a future event planned with the Thompson Brothers. Not to mention, Corrigan’s company houses the Maryland Roughriders, a club that Corrigan himself started to help give public school lacrosse players more national exposure. 

He helped coach his son through high school and now heads the 2020 squad. 

“I run this company very similar to how I run my team,” he said. “Coaching has made me a better manager.”

And he’ll continue to run his company that way. Corrigan Sports is gradually expanding, but its founder pledges that his company will stick with its commitments until the end. For Corrigan, it’s a dream that has come to fruition.