Mayor Rob Ford took courses at university — that much, at least, is clear.

Normally, a mayor’s post-secondary education is an easily confirmed thing, a line or two in an official biography.

But Ford is no ordinary mayor.

Last April, early in the civic election campaign, Ford seemed to imply to the Star’s Linda Diebel that he had graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, where he studied political science and played centre for the Ravens football team.

The confusion arose after Diebel asked Ford about graduating and he replied: “21; I took three years.”

After the story ran, Fraser Macdonald, the Ford campaign’s deputy communications director, emailed a clarification: “While Rob did attend Carleton University for political science, he actually left school two credits short of graduating when his sister fell upon hard times.”

This week, the news website OpenFile Ottawa quoted John Lindsay, an “old football buddy” of Ford, as saying they were benchwarmers in 1989 — he doubts Ford ever actually played in a Ravens game — and he assumed Ford dropped out of school after first year, because he never saw him again.

Lindsay confirmed the information to the Star on Tuesday, adding: “I don’t want to seem like Robbie’s enemy. I liked the guy.”

OpenFile quotes Ford as responding that he never started for the Ravens but “I know I played,” that he left Carleton in 1990 and that he went on to study at York University’s Atkinson College.

“I don’t ever recall saying that I went anywhere for three years. I went to university for three years, but I wasn’t in Ottawa for three years,” Ford told the website.

On Tuesday, York confirmed that Ford took six continuing education courses between 1990 and 1991. The university said he completed “some, but not all” of the first-year courses, which included political science, urban studies, geography, economics and history.

Carleton University refused to release any details about Ford, citing student privacy.

The Star, which published a clarification in April based on Macdonald’s contention that Ford was two credits shy of graduating, asked Ford’s office Tuesday to erase any confusion by confirming which post-secondary schools he attended, when and what he studied.

At press time, there was no response.

Ford’s official biography makes no mention of university. His profile on the LinkedIn business networking website lists Carleton but doesn’t say he graduated.

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Macdonald did not respond to a call and email from the Star asking for clarification. The young politico made headlines after the Oct. 25 election, when it was revealed that in June he set up a Twitter account and photo for QueensQuayKaren, a purported supporter of Ford rival George Smitherman, to help the Ford campaign.

With files from Louise Brown