The claim: Tim Walz lied about coaching high school football team to state championship
An Aug. 12 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hasn’t been truthful about his experience coaching high school football.
“Dang! So Tim Walz has been bragging about coaching a high school state championship team," reads the post. "Turns out he coached the ninth grade team – but lost that job when he got a DUI. Just like he lied about the ‘weapons of war’ he used in Iraq. Just dang.”
It was shared more than 5,000 times in three days.
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Our rating: False
Walz was a coach for a Minnesota high school football team when it won a state championship in 1999, according to local news reporting.
Walz was arrested in 1995, coached for state champs in 1999
On Sept. 23, 1995, a Nebraska state trooper stopped Walz, then 31, for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. After Walz failed a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test, he was arrested and initially charged with speeding and driving while intoxicated, The New York Times reported.
Walz ultimately pleaded guilty to reckless driving, a misdemeanor, and paid a fine of $200. At the plea hearing, his attorney told a judge that Walz had resigned from his extracurricular duties at Nebraska’s Alliance High School, including a coaching role, and offered to leave his teaching position, according to court documents published by Minnesota Public Radio.
But that wasn’t the end of his high school coaching career. In 1996, Walz moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where he was hired at Mankato West High School to teach social studies – and began working with the school’s football team, first as a linebackers coach and then as defensive coordinator, The Washington Post reported.
The team started its 1999 season by losing four of its first six games before winning eight in a row and defeating Cambridge-Isanti High School in the Class 4A state championship. The Post reported on impassioned speeches that a player recalled Walz giving in the playoffs,
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Walz misspoke on 'weapons of war,' spokesperson says
Walz began his political career as a volunteer for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign before winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007, where he served multiple terms. He was elected Minnesota’s governor in 2018. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate in early August.
The Instagram post’s mention of “weapons of war” refers to a 2018 comment Walz made while talking about gun violence. He said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, told the Associated Press that Walz misspoke by suggesting he served in a combat zone. Walz joined the National Guard as a 17-year-old on April 8, 1981, and stayed until May 16, 2005, when he retired to run for office. He was never in a combat zone.
“In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the governor misspoke,” Hitt said. “He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them.”
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- The New York Times, Aug. 6, Walz’s Decades-Old Drunken Driving Arrest Draws New Attention
- Minnesota Public Radio, Aug. 8, Walz’s 1995 DUI arrest in Nebraska: 5 questions, answered
- The Washington Post, Aug. 14, Tim Walz as football coach: A rambunctious, rah-rah joker
- The Free Press, Nov. 26, 2008, West state football champions: 1999
- Associated Press, Aug. 10, Walz ‘misspoke’ in 2018 reference to ‘weapons of war, that I carried in war,’ Harris campaign says
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