President Biden bragged about his high school football glory days Wednesday, claiming to have been “runner-up in the state scoring championship” during remarks at a summit of Native American nations.
The president, who is well-known for exaggerating or embellishing details about his life, lamented that in his younger days, he was forced to choose between playing lacrosse or football, and chose the pigskin because of his prowess on the gridiron.
“You couldn’t play both in the same season,” Biden, 81, said.
“And since I was a powerful, 6-foot, 158-pound, flanker back,” he explained as the audience began to chuckle.
The laughter led him to further justify his decision by boasting about his scoring abilities at Delaware’s Archmere Academy in the early 1960s.
“I was the runner-up at state scoring championship,” the president claimed. “Don’t laugh, man.”
In 1960, Biden finished fifth in the “conference scoring race,” scoring four touchdowns, good for 24 points, according to a 2020 article in the Daily Pennsylvanian.
The article notes that when Archmere’s four non-conference games are taken into account, Biden’s point total that year reached 60, “putting him among the highest in the state of Delaware.”
In 1960, Biden finished fifth in the “conference scoring race,” scoring four touchdowns, according to a 2020 article in the Daily Pennsylvanian. Getty ImagesIt’s unclear whether he was “runner-up” in the state that year.
Biden has previously made claims about his football career that turned out not to be true.
In 2012, he falsely claimed he was on the University of Delaware Blue Hens football team that topped the Ohio Bobcats in 1963.
“And since I was a powerful, 6-foot, 158-pound, flanker back,” the 81-year-old president explained as the audience began to chuckle. Getty Images“I just double-checked my memory, you know, you get to my age, and you’re not so sure you remember. You know, your glory days look more glorious than they really were,” Biden said at the Ohio campaign stop at the time. “I went back on the internet, and I just want you to know that I came here on Oct. 19, 1963, and we beat you Bobcats, 29-12.”
The University of Delaware later said Biden didn’t play in that game.
And Biden, a freshman at the time of the game, would not have been allowed to play for the varsity squad, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
