Some guys exaggerate when talking about their youthful sports exploits, but the boasts of one candidate for state office have led to official backtracking.
In various speeches, campaign ads and written biographies in past years, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has said he made it out of his Eastside neighborhood by winning a football scholarship to Harvard University, where he was an Academic All-American before going on to become a professional football player.
But now, as he runs for attorney general, the time as a pro football player is listed in bio material and speeches as "a brief stint," his standing at Harvard is listed as honorable mention for an All-American award, and he has dropped all claims of getting a football scholarship.
Last week, Delgadillo acknowledged through a spokesman that he never played in a pro football game and that his Harvard financial aid was not an athletic scholarship, because Ivy League schools do not provide them.
Jonathan Diamond, a spokesman for the city attorney, said someone mistakenly "truncated" the reference on his city website to leave out the words "honorable mention" when referring to him as an Academic All-American.
"It was pointed out. It was corrected," Diamond said.
But the reference has made its way into the public record many other places without being corrected.
The Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which lists attorneys and their accomplishments, credits Delgadillo with being an "NCAA Academic All-American" in several years' editions. The entries are based on information provided by the attorneys.
In a 2001 campaign mailer, Delgadillo is described as "an Academic All-American at Harvard University."
And in a written copy of a speech he delivered last year to the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, Delgadillo said, "I was an All-American football player. It was at Harvard, so don't get too excited. But I was an All-American football player."
The claim is one of several that are all part of Delgadillo's Cinderella-like story that emphasizes how athletic prowess led him to a better life.
In a locally broadcast television ad for his reelection campaign last year, a narrator says, "He grew up in East L.A. Won a football scholarship to Harvard. But instead of cashing in, he came home to teach, coach and rebuild our community."
The football scholarship was news to Robert Mitchell, a spokesman for the college.
