Fact Check: Did Joe Biden's School Football Coach Play at Michigan?

While Democrats staving off a red wave in the November midterms may have eased some of the party's concerns about President Joe Biden's performance, there's at least one problem he's unlikely to overcome—a propensity for gaffes.

Biden's habit of slipping on words and simple, easily-verifiable facts has earned him a self-acknowledged "gaffe machine" status, seized upon by critics and opponents who question his competency.

Just this week, addressing an audience in Michigan, the president made reference to his college football days in Delaware with a biographical detail that some observers have cast doubt over.

The Claim

During a speech in Bay City, Michigan, made on November 29, 2022, President Joe Biden stated that "my college football coach played at Michigan. And he—he became a—he made it to the Hall of Fame as a coach."

Some social media users doubted this claim; one tweet with more than 13,000 engagements said: "Why does he lie about things that can be easily checked?"

Another stated: "Biden played one semester on Delaware's freshman football team before quitting because he failed all his classes."

The Facts

Biden gave a series of clues as to who his coach was without saying who they were outright.

"And I told Jeffrey that I went to a school that had these colors," Biden said.

"The—you guys will recognize these colors. Well, they—you know, my college football coach played at Michigan. And he—he became a—he made it to the Hall of Fame as a coach.

"And—but the thing was that he always—here's what he did to—I have to admit it front end. I told this to Kildee on the way up. We stole Michigan's uniforms. Same exact uniforms. So that's why the blue and gold."

According to a 2020 article by The Daily Pennsylvanian, although Biden played college football, joining the Delaware freshman team nicknamed the "Blue Chicks," he quit after the fall season after earning a 1.9 grade point average.

In his book, Promises to Keep, Biden wrote: "When my first semester grades came out, my mom and dad told me I wouldn't be playing spring football."

Based on his speech in which he refers to a football coach who played "at Michigan" and was in the "Hall of Fame" as a coach, he could be referring to at least one of three people, Newsweek Fact Check found.

The first is Harold R. "Tubby" Raymond, a College Football Hall of Fame inductee, regarded as "one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football during a nearly 50-year career."

According to the National Football Foundation, Raymond was also a member of the University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Fame (2002), the state of Delaware Sports Hall of Fame (1993), the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame (2017), and the Flint, Michigan Hall of Fame (1983).

Raymond joined the University of Delaware in 1954 as the assistant football coach until he was made head coach in 1966.

In a 2012 NBC article, before his death in 2017, Raymond stated that Biden "was on the team" when the University's Blue Hens football team visited Ohio in 1963.

The University of Delaware confirmed that while Biden did play on the 1961 University of Delaware freshman team, he did not finish the season to earn a letter. Although he came out for the team in spring 1963 and took part in practice, Biden did not play in varsity football that year.

Raymond, who played as a quarterback and linebacker at the University of Michigan, was pictured with Biden in 2008 at a University of Delaware game.

At a 2018 memorial service commemorating Raymond, Biden spoke, saying: "You never wondered if you'd be embarrassed because you knew Tubby Raymond."

Another coach the president may have referred to was David Nelson, who was the head coach of the University of Delaware football team while Tubby Raymond was assistant coach.

Considered "one of the most influential figures in the history of University of Delaware athletics and college football," Nelson played halfback at Michigan from 1939-1941. He was a member of the College Football Hall of Fame (1987), the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame (1978), the University of Delaware Athletics Hall of Fame (1997), and the Middle Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame (2016).

Head football coach at the University of Delaware from 1951-1966, he was also recognized as the Washington Touchdown Club College Division National Coach of the Year in 1963 and received the Distinguished American Award from the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame in 1984.

While Newsweek could not find any evidence of Biden speaking publicly about him, Nelson was coaching while the president was at university; his reputation and title would undoubtedly have been known to the president then and since.

Another possibility—though, on the balance of evidence, less likely—is John Walsh.

Walsh was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 2012 and, according to an obituary published on Delaware Online, lettered three years in football and baseball while studying history at the University of Delaware.

His name and photos are included in a 1955 booklet on the Delaware Blue Hens (the University of Delaware's athletics team). A record of the Blue Hens' 1957 football roster also shows that Walsh played full back from 1955-1957.

This record would support Biden's claim that his football coach played for Michigan (or a Michigan football team at least).

However, if Walsh was indeed the person the president referred to, it would mean the president had confused his time as a college football player with when he played for prep school Archmere, which Walsh joined as coach in 1960.

Additional confusion stems from Biden's use of "school," which could be interpreted to mean his college or his actual prep school.

In a 2008 New York Times article about Biden's youth, Walsh sang the then vice-president's praises, saying: "He was a skinny kid, but he was one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach."

At Walsh's 2012 Hall of Fame induction, Biden returned with kind words, saying: "He urged us to play the game the same way you lived your life, with passion and integrity.

"No matter how good you were, Coach always stressed that you were a teammate first."

Whoever he may have been referring to, Biden is correct that, during his brief stint as a college freshman player, his coach would have been a Michigan player and a Hall of Famer.

If neither Raymond nor Nelson were who Biden was referring to, there are grounds to believe Walsh is the coach he may have described.

Biden has, however, previously made questionable claims about his sports lineage. In October 2022, the president claimed his grandfather was an All-American football player.

While there are records showing his grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan, played college football there was no unequivocal proof that he received the honorary title.

Newsweek has contacted the White House and the University of Delaware for comment.

The Ruling

True.

Biden did briefly play in the freshman team at the University of Delaware (later quitting to focus on his studies), while both Raymond Tubby and David Nelson were there, as assistant and head coaches of its football team respectively. Both men played for Michigan and are both multiple Hall of Fame inductees.

Biden was also coached by Delaware Sports Museum Hall of Famer John Walsh while at prep-school Archmere. Walsh also lettered three years in football playing fullback for the University of Delaware's Blue Hens team.

As of yet, Newsweek has been unable to establish conclusively which of the men Biden was referencing in his speech, but all three (to a greater or lesser extent) could be deemed to fit the profile.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team