First elected to office in 1972, Joe Biden has been in the public eye for nearly half a century. Having served in the United States Senate for 36 years, followed by two terms as vice president under Barack Obama, he’s no stranger to American voters, who elected him as the 46th President of the United States in November 2020.
Often the subject of viral memes about his perceived “bromance” with Obama, or the signature aviator sunglasses he’s worn since he was a lifeguard in the 1960s, the father of four (Hunter, Ashley, and late children Beau and Amy) is as much recognized for his landmark career legislation, including the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, as he is for his relatable blue-collar roots. Here are 10 more facts you might not know about the president:
He overcame a childhood stutter
Growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden has said he suffered merciless bullying over a "debilitating" childhood stutter. “I can think of nothing else that has ever stripped me of my dignity as quickly and as profoundly and as thoroughly as when I stuttered in grade school,” he said in a 2008 speech to the American Institute for Stuttering.
As he wrote in his 2008 memoir, a teacher, who was also a nun, even made fun of him, calling him “Mr. Bu-bu-bu-Biden,” leading him to walk out of class one day. His mother, Catherine Finnegan Biden, later confronted the teacher, he said, telling the woman, “If you ever speak to my son like that again, I’ll come back and rip that bonnet off your head.”
Biden has explained he overcame the stutter by reading and reciting Irish poems, including those by William Butler Yeats, in front of a mirror to monitor and control his facial distortions. To this day, he can still recite long passages of Irish poetry from memory.
READ MORE: Joe Biden: The Heartbreaking Car Accident that Killed His Wife and Daughter
He was a high school football star
During his senior year at Delaware’s Archmere Academy in 1960, Biden, who played wide receiver and halfback, was a leading scorer on the private Catholic school’s undefeated football team. “He was the guy that was the main pass catcher,” one of his teammates, Michael Fay, recalled to The New York Times in November 2020. “We were seniors in 1960, so throwing the ball was almost a mortal sin. But he caught seven or eight touchdown passes in eight games, which was a lot for back then.”
In 2008, Biden’s former coach E. John Walsh described Biden as skinny, “but he was one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach.”
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