On Oct. 4, the College renamed its football stadium in honor of late head football coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III. More than 700 individuals — together with household, colleagues, present and former football gamers and different group members — gathered exterior the newly named Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field for the dedication.
The celebration — which passed off a little bit multiple yr after Teevens’s loss of life — included speeches by College President Sian Leah Beilock, linebacker Micah Green ’25, the Board of Trustees chair Elizabeth Cahill Lempres ’83 Th ’84 and Teevens’s spouse Kirsten Teevens. In her speech, Kirsten Teevens mentioned the stadium dedication will enable her husband’s legacy to proceed in his favourite place.
“Renaming the stadium reinforces that all that he was and all he stood for will not just be part of history but part of the future too,” she mentioned.
Beilock additionally took the rostrum through the occasion. Although Beilock solely knew Teevens for a short while, she got here to study in regards to the values he represents, she mentioned.
“Tough, independent, competitive to the last down and never afraid to stand up for what was right or try things in a new way,” Beilock mentioned. “Above all, [he had] a belief in team and community and the idea that everyone, no matter who you are, has a role to play.”
Beilock then launched Kirsten Teevens, who was welcomed with a standing ovation.
After thanking attendees and her shut family and friends, Kirsten Teevens targeted on her husband. She mentioned Teevens could be “so embarrassed” {that a} stadium was being named after him.
“But the idea is appropriate,” she mentioned. “No place meant more to him and his family.”
Even although Kirsten Teevens didn't witness her husband lead Dartmouth to a 1978 title and win an Ivy League Player of the Year throughout his enjoying profession, she was lucky to see him as a Big Green coach, she mentioned.
“When the players were stretching before each game, I would watch Buddy walk around to each one of them,” Kirsten Teevens mentioned. “He would touch a helmet or tap a shoulder, and I know he was telling them how proud he was of them or that he believed in them.”
Kirsten Teevens additionally famous that Teevens strongly advocated for girls in football. She mentioned she was proud he employed Callie Brownson as the primary feminine Division I football coach in 2018.
“[Brownson] hears Buddy in her head guiding her when she needs it most,” Kirsten Teevens mentioned.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned he believes the NFL adopted in Teevens’s footsteps.
“[Teevens] opened the doors in bringing [women] into the football operations either as coaches or other positions,” Roger Goodell mentioned in an interview with The Dartmouth. “… Now everyone’s looking to do the same thing. More than half our teams have women in very significant positions in football.”
Not solely was Teevens an advocate for girls in football, however he additionally cared about his gamers’ security. Former College President Phil Hanlon ’77, who attended the occasion, pointed to Teevens’s growth of the Mobile Virtual Player, a tackling dummy meant to cut back participant accidents throughout follow.
“I’ll never forget his creativity,” Hanlon mentioned in an interview with The Dartmouth. “The idea for the MVP was such a creative path.”
While Teevens wished to enhance the game as an entire, his love for Dartmouth was at all times evident. Micah Green ’25 — who performed below Teevens from 2021 to 2022 — mentioned one of the “craziest Teevenisms” he ever heard was that Teevens would shovel the “D” on the football area when it snowed.
“I quickly learned that it was Buddy’s love for Dartmouth which made the seemingly impossible possible,” Green mentioned in his speech. “Comradeship, faith in one another, loyalty to Dartmouth — these traits aimed into the fabrics of Coach Teevens and linked the past into the present.”
Teevens finally impressed Green to shovel the “D” himself, Green mentioned. He additionally famous that years earlier, when he was deciding which school to attend, Teevens’s give attention to each teachers and athletics helped him resolve to attend Dartmouth.
“I will try to remind everyone of his values and try to live it everyday,” Green mentioned in an interview with The Dartmouth. “Out of all the offers I got, he was the only coach that said I could study engineering and play football at a high level. … That was one of the main reasons I chose to come here.”
Following the speeches, Lempres requested attendees to face because the Dartmouth College Marching band began to play a drum roll. A inexperienced banner then dropped to disclose “Buddy Teevens Stadium” displayed on the gate.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Lempres mentioned the dedication of the stadium was “floated very early” with vast help from the opposite trustees.
“We wanted to be respectful and give the Teevens family the time to determine how they wanted Buddy honored, and I am glad we did that,” Lempres mentioned.
Former information anchor Jane Skinner, who's married to Goodell and helped arrange a celebration of life ceremony for Teevens in May, mentioned many members of the Dartmouth group reached out to a committee established by Beilock about their curiosity in remembering Teevens. The committee, which labored with Kirsten Teevens, athletics director Mike Harrity and wellness officer Estevan Garcia, then tried to come back up with a “few different avenues” for individuals to recollect the late coach, Skinner mentioned.
“When we announced [the renaming of the stadium], people just came forward [in support of the idea],” she mentioned. “… We are really overwhelmed with gratitude for just how generous people have been, and it all goes back to how much they loved Buddy.”
The day after the dedication, the Big Green confronted the University of Pennsylvania for his or her first Ivy League matchup of the season and received 20-17 — the primary win recorded in Buddy Teevens Stadium.
