Mike Leach watches Saturday's game against Arizona.(Photo: James Snook, USA TODAY Sports)

PULLMAN, Washington – A tweet from a tampered video of former President Barack Obama sent by Washington State University football head coach, Mike Leach, in June would have cost $ 1.6 million to the school.

Vice President of Marketing and Communications Washington State, Phil Weiler, said the tweet did not encourage donors to ask for money, but some told school officials that they had changed their plans for future donations.

"These were mostly gifts of inheritance that would have been paid upon the death of the donor.These future inheritance donations would have totaled $ 1.6 million," he said.

Washington State President Kirk Schulz said it was probably too early to predict the real impact on future donations.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported that the sports department's fundraising branch had received about 60 emails complaining from Leach after tweeting the fake video, which featured excerpts from a 2014 speech delivered by Obama in Belgium, in June.

Leach then spoke with Twitter users about its authenticity. He then deleted the tweet and posted a different tweet in which he admitted that "the video was incomplete", but he added "I think it's important to discuss the importance or the little power that our government should have. "

Schulz does not expect Leach to make the same mistake again.

"We have organized social media training for all of our senior coaches and our firm, just so that people know that what they do often reflects their work, not their private political views. Said Mr Schulz. "By the end of the day, Coach Leach is like everyone else. He can choose to do some of these things as a private citizen. "

Tom Schad and Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports contributed to this report.

KREM is a property of TEGNA.

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