It’s been a busy few weeks for the staff in Northwestern University’s athletics communications department. They’ve fielded questions about hazing allegations on the football team, about the firing of longtime head coach Pat Fitzgerald and looming lawsuits, about controversy on the baseball program and the dismissal of that team’s first-year head coach Jim Foster.
Now, a new question has emerged, this one about the department’s own work.
A July 14 university press release announcing David Braun’s ascension from defensive coordinator to interim head football coach included a line about him having a master’s degree in sports management and educational leadership.
Except, he doesn’t.
The Chicago Tribune discovered the inaccuracy while fact-checking information about Braun for a short profile. A reporter emailed staff at Winona State University, where Braun played football and began his coaching career in 2008. Andrea Northam, spokesperson for the southeast Minnesota school, responded to say that while Braun did declare a major in the university’s graduate program, they have no record of him obtaining any degree beyond his bachelor’s in social science history teaching.
When presented with the discrepancy, Northwestern University associate athletic director Paul Kennedy initially emailed the Tribune saying the information, “like most of the release,” came from Braun’s biography at North Dakota State University, where he worked as defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2022.
And yet, there is no mention of a master’s degree in Braun’s bio on the NDSU website.
Asked about that absence, Kennedy suggested the NDSU bio could have been changed, noting that it was updated to reflect Braun’s departure for Northwestern. Kennedy’s emailed response also included a link to Braun’s biography on the University of California, Davis website, another stop in Braun’s coaching career, which does say he earned a master’s from Winona State.
“I’ve never had a direct conversation with Coach Braun (or any of our coaches) about his education,” Kennedy said in an email. “When we write website bios we lean almost entirely on the bio from a previous employer, so absolutely did not come from him.”
A previous Northwestern press release in January about Braun’s hiring as defensive coordinator also does not say anything about a master’s degree.
Late Friday afternoon, Kennedy emailed a statement that read: “In drafting the recent press release announcing David Braun’s appointment as Interim Head Coach, the University’s communications staff sourced information from a publicly available biography of Coach Braun that contained factual inaccuracies. Coach Braun did not misrepresent his educational experience to the University at any point, including on his resume or application materials. We apologize to Coach Braun and the public for the error.”
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Braun’s bio on the University of Northern Iowa’s website — where he worked as an assistant coach in 2017 and 2018 — gives conflicting information about his academic career. A paragraph that begins with him having “received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Winona State” ends with Braun “working on his master’s in sports management.”
And his online profile for Winona State also said he held a master’s degree in sports management and educational leadership. Northam said the university updated Braun’s biography on its website “once the misinformation was discovered.” But, she could not answer how it got there in the first place.
It’s also unclear whether athletics communications staff at Northwestern, or Braun’s other employers, gave him an opportunity to review any press releases or biographical information about him prior to public dissemination. That practice became more common after 2001, when newly hired Notre Dame head football coach George O’Leary resigned days after he was hired following the discovery that his resume included false information about his playing career at the University of New Hampshire and about his earning a master’s degree from New York University.
Braun did not return a phone message Thursday seeking comment, and did not answer when called again Friday. Neither Kennedy nor Wingrove responded to an emailed request to interview him.
Meanwhile, the July 14 press release on Northwestern’s website appears to have been updated to remove the line about Braun’s master’s degree.
Nathan Miller, founder and CEO of the communications and public relations firm Miller Ink., said Northwestern communications staff should have checked every detail of the press release given the intense scrutiny the university faces.
“A good communications professional is thorough, pays attention to detail, checks every fact before it gets issued, especially in the wake of a crisis like Northwestern has experienced,” Miller said. “At the same time, people are people. And sometimes as a result, I do believe people get sloppy, unfocused, and they make mistakes.”
