“Dartmouth Dedicates Buddy Teevens '79 Football Stadium.”

Revered as a brilliant coach and inspiring educator, Buddy Teevens blazed trails and changed lives over the decades he led Dartmouth's football teams to Memorial Field. A year after his death, family, friends, alumni and athletes gathered Friday under the shadow of a picturesque sunset to dedicate the stadium to Teevens and name it in his honor.

“Tonight we are presenting ourselves with one of the greatest honors as an institution,” President Sian Leah Beilock said to more than 700 attendees gathered at the main gate. “We are dedicating a building – this majestic stadium, the home of Big Green football – while proudly holding up the example of one individual so that generations of future Dartmouth students and football fans everywhere will always know and remember the great Buddy Teevens .”

She said Teevens was a visionary leader.

“Strong, independent, competitive to a fault, never afraid to stand up for what’s right or try things in a new way,” she said. “And most of all, belief in team and community, in the idea that everyone, no matter who you are, has a role to play. ”

A champion of excellence and justice, and security

As a quarterback and Ivy League player of the year, Teevens led the Big Green to the 1978 Ivy title. As a coach, his record was 117-101-2, including 83-70-1 in Ivy League play. He won five Ivy League championships.

But for Teevens, safety was always just as important as winning. To minimize concussions, he banned tackles in practice and, working with the Thayer School of Engineering, developed the Mobile Virtual Player, a robotic tackling dummy that reduces injuries for teams at all levels, including the NFL.

Teevens also made history by recruiting and hiring the first full-time female soccer coach in Division I soccer.

And yet, his wife, Kirsten, told the gathering, the unassuming Teevens would have found the dedication ceremony embarrassing, even though the stadium was almost a second home to his family, “and better than any daycare center.” I let my toddlers go every day after practice and they were entertained by dozens of cute and goofy college boys. They also had a few precious minutes with their father. Often they didn’t see him again until training the next day.”

Kirsten Teevens also shared her fondest memories of pre-game rituals.

“When the players did stretches before every game, I watched Buddy go to each one of them,” she said. “He touched a helmet or tapped a shoulder. And I know he told them how proud he was of them or that he believed in them.”

Her parting words: “Renaming the stadium affirms that everything it was and stood for will not only be part of history, but also part of the future,” brought a standing ovation.

The “Teevens Way”

“Coach Teevens was so much more than just a coach for us players. He was truly a mentor in every aspect of our lives,” said Micah Green, 25, a linebacker for Big Green.

For example, Teevens asked his players to sit in the front row of class, introduce themselves to their professors, leave the rooms cleaner than they found them, and remove hats and headphones in the dining hall. To Green's amazement, Teevens exemplified that work ethic, shoveling away the “D” in the middle of the football field after every snowstorm.

“I quickly learned that it was Buddy’s love for Dartmouth that made the seemingly impossible possible,” Green said.

Elizabeth Cahill Lempres '83, Thayer '84, Chair of the Board of Trustees, officially accepted the stadium and said, “Today's dedication recognizes Buddy for his decades of leadership, mentorship, commitment to player safety and love for all things… what has to do with Dartmouth is honored.”

As the Dartmouth Marching Band played on the sidelines, a cloth cover was thrown away and in large letters above the entrance gate read “Buddy Teevens Stadium.” The ceremony ended as Coach Teevens concluded each game, win or lose, by leading his team in song Alma mater.

Continuing the Teevens tradition

Over the past two years, a growing cadre of alumni and friends have honored Teevens' legacy by committing $40 million in investments to date to develop and promote pathways to athletic excellence, student leadership and well-being, and equity

On October 1, Teevens' 68th birthday, President Beilock announced three major initiatives.

The Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens ’79 Center for Peak Performance will extend Teevens’ holistic approach to performance, mental health and well-being to all students.

The Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens '79 Scholarship Fund will support four Teevens Scholars, one in each undergraduate class.

Strategic investments in coaching and facilities will ensure Big Green football continues to thrive. Gifts to the Friends of Dartmouth Football will support student and staff recruiting and team building and improve facilities and technology.

More will follow

Dartmouth's Ivy League season opener against Penn begins today at 1 p.m. with more honors for Teevens

“We always come here with the mindset that we are going to represent Buddy. Represent his values. And just the fact that we can see his name on florins and at the front of the stadium every day means so much to us,” linebacker Micah Green said after the dedication. “It’s a visualization of all the hard work and values ​​we try to live by every day.”