Two academic degrees attributed to an ISU football staff member don’t exist, a discrepancy the staff member calls a typographical error.

The 2001 ISU football media guide states that Charlie Partridge, ISU director of football operations, earned master’s degrees from both Iowa State and Drake University. But while records indicate Partridge was a graduate student at both universities in the late 1990s, those records don’t show that he ever completed either degree, registrars at the two universities said. The discrepancy was discovered during an investigation by ISU journalism students.

The 2001 ISU football media guide states Partridge “has earned a master’s degree in higher education from Drake and a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from Iowa State.”

As the director of football operations, Partridge is responsible for Iowa State’s football recruiting efforts. He has held the $50,000 per year job for two years.

Partridge said he first noticed the degree error when he saw the 2001 football media guide this fall.

“That was a mistake in the media guide,” he said. “It is being corrected for the spring.”

Partridge said his r‚sum‚ and application summary both say he completed his undergraduate degree at Drake and had not completed graduate work at Drake or Iowa State.

“I want to make it very clear that I was not misleading in the hiring process,” he said. “I didn’t want to mislead anyone when I got this job.”

Partridge said he has taken classes at both universities in the past and the error was a misunderstanding.

“It was strictly a typographical error,” he said. “It was a mistake that I didn’t catch proofreading.”

But the typographical error, as Partridge refers to it, also existed in a different form in the 2000 football media guide. That guide said Partridge “has earned a master’s degree in higher education from Drake and is a semester from receiving a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from Iowa State.”

“I can’t speak for the 2000 media guide,” he said. “I would have to check. I don’t remember what the 2000 media guide said.”

The 1999 ISU football media guide, published when Partridge was a graduate assistant coach, correctly said he was “currently working on a master’s degree in higher education at Iowa State.”

Media guides, which are provided free to reporters, are considered the bible of facts and figures for a university’s major sports teams. Reporters frequently use these guides for background in articles.

The students in the public affairs reporting class began their examination of the backgrounds of ISU athletic coaches and administrators in response to recent reports that coaches at Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia had falsified their credentials.

The ISU athletic program suffered a similar embarrassment three years ago when it was revealed that Kerry Miller, Iowa State’s then-head volleyball coach, had neither graduated from the University of Arizona, as claimed, nor lettered there in volleyball.

ISU Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde, who was hired to replace Gene Smith in November 2000, has said the Kerry Miller episode prompted the athletic department to tighten its hiring procedures.

“What we require now are three things – an official sealed transcript from the registrar’s office, a current r‚sum‚ to cross-reference with transcripts, and DPS does a background check of the person,” he said.

Partridge was already on staff when Van De Velde was hired.

Van De Velde said he considers academic credentials “very important.”

“It doesn’t matter as much to me if someone actually played or lettered in a sport,” he said. “Academic credentials are much more important.”

The ISU journalism students reviewed the backgrounds of 29 coaches in football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, soccer and wrestling, as well as athletic administrators, as reported in ISU athletic media guides. The students examined only information that was publicly available – university degrees and athletic participation.

When discrepancies were found, the information was checked a second time.

– The following journalism students contributed to this article: Amy Agnew, Emily Arthur, Brandon Babcock, Jenifer Bell, Melodie DeMulling, Chris Harlan, Andrea Hauser, Anna Holland, Kara James, Paul Kix, Bethany Kohoutek, Carrie Kreisler, Jeff Mitchell, David Olson, Tim Paluch, Mark Pawlak and Emily Ries.