President Beilock Announces Programs to Build on Teevens Legacy
Alumni and friends have committed $40 million to date toward student-focused investments that will celebrate the legacy of the beloved coach.
Oct 1, 2024
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Buddy Teevens ’79 touched countless lives on the Dartmouth campus and beyond—and the Dartmouth community is now banding together and giving to advance his steadfast commitment to integrity, kindness, and competitive excellence for future generations.
Speaking on what would have been Teevens’s 68th birthday, President Sian Leah Beilock announced a new center and a suite of programs honoring the late football coach that will benefit all students and affirm Dartmouth’s position as a national leader in student wellness, leadership development, excellence in academic and athletic performance, and equity.
The most ambitious component of the multi-faceted endeavor in Teevens’s memory is a new center that will extend elements of the Department of Athletics and Recreation’s Dartmouth Peak Performance program to all undergraduates and bring even greater collaboration across campus and with thought leaders around the world to the field of student mental health, wellness, and performance.
“Buddy had a passion for helping student-athletes discover their best selves and perform at the highest levels possible, on and off the field. We will carry his life-long commitment forward through the new Teevens Center by sparking collaboration, research, and innovation for the benefit of young people nationally,” says President Beilock.
First as a student-athlete in two varsity sports, and then as Dartmouth’s winningest football coach, Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III was an inspirational leader whose love for his family, his players and coaches, and Dartmouth knew no bounds. Teevens was selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year in 1978 when he quarterbacked the Dartmouth football team that captured the Ivy title. He later coached the Big Green to five more Ivy championships over 22 seasons.
Titles won do not begin to tell the story of his impact on the game of football. Teevens was recognized throughout the football community as an innovator who championed safety for players. In 2010, he became the first Division I coach to eliminate traditional tackling in practices to reduce the number of concussions—a change endorsed by the full Ivy League six years later. He worked with the Thayer School of Engineering to create the Mobile Virtual Player, a robotic tackling dummy used today by teams at all levels, including the NFL.
Later, again defying the traditions of collegiate football, he recruited and hired the first full-time female coach in NCAA DI football.
Since this past May’s celebration of Teevens’s life at Memorial Field, there has been an outpouring of interest in ways to secure and grow his legacy. President Beilock established a committee to work with Buddy’s wife, Kirsten Teevens; Haldeman Family Director of Athletics and Recreation Mike Harrity; and Chief Health and Wellness Officer Estevan Garcia to identify a set of initiatives that would honor Teevens. The Buddy Teevens ’79 Legacy Committee established the three categories of giving to build on his dedication to promoting student leadership, excellence in athletic performance, and innovative approaches to student well-being and equity in sports.
The Teevens Center Founders Circle
Dartmouth is seeking 25 lead investors to commit $1 million or more each toward the vision of enhancing the mental and physical performance of all students through the Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens ’79 Center for Peak Performance. Dartmouth wishes to thank the first 17 founders for their leadership and generous support:
- Olivia Floren & Douglas C. Floren ’63
- The Goodell Family
- Calla Griffith & Will Griffith ’93
- Andrea Immelt & Jeffrey R. Immelt ’78 H’04
- Andrea W. Jenny & Christopher T. Jenny ’77
- Rose Kimball & Richard H. Kimball ’78
- Katherine A. Lemkau & Gregg R. Lemkau ’91
- Gretchen L. Moore & Christopher B. Moore ’92
- Claire Spaht & P. Holden Spaht Jr. ’96
- Mike Triplett ’96
- Class of 1988 Football Players and Friends
- 1990 Ivy League Championship Football Team
- Anonymous (5)
“We worked closely with Kirsten and her family to reflect Buddy’s values in these three programs,” says Jane Goodell P’23,’23, a committee co-chair. “It’s our hope that generations of Dartmouth students continue to learn about his remarkable place in the sport of football and that he serves as a source of pride and inspiration for them, as he was to all of us.”
Chris Jenny ’77, the committee’s other co-chair, adds, “We’ve been astounded by the generosity of Buddy’s classmates, his players, his teammates, and notably alumni athletes from sports beyond football who recognize the good he did for all of Dartmouth athletics.”
Early conversations over the summer have generated more than $40 million in commitments to date to realize these three initiatives:
Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens ’79 Center for Peak Performance Fund
For more than a decade, Dartmouth varsity athletes have participated in Dartmouth Peak Performance (DP2), a holistic approach to developing exceptional student-athletes and future leaders. DP2 programs encompass subjects such as leadership and mental performance, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, counseling and sport psychology, nutrition, and career development.
“Coach Teevens understood better than most the competitive edge Dartmouth could provide students through elite sports performance resources,” says Harrity. “With the additional resources contemplated by the Teevens programs, DP2 will be well positioned to deliver on Buddy’s vision for further cultivating athletic excellence.”
Dartmouth plans to extend elements of DP2 to all undergraduates through the Teevens Center while continuing to operate with its focus on students who participate in varsity athletics. This initiative will incorporate several successful components of the program—leadership development, nutrition, and mental wellness and performance—in workshops accessible to any undergraduate who chooses to participate. This will be an important element of Commitment to Care, Dartmouth’s comprehensive, institution-wide initiative to support the mental health of students.
“In conversation after conversation, Dartmouth football players have told me Coach Teevens changed their lives,” says Brian Conroy ’86, president of Friends of Dartmouth Football and a member of the legacy committee. “With these new programs, we are rallying to do the same for others in his name.”
The research and innovation components of the Teevens Center will honor and build on Buddy’s legacy as a trailblazer. Inspired by the impact of the Mobile Virtual Player on player safety and his commitment to advancing equity as an early supporter of female coaches in Division I football, the center will solidify Dartmouth’s position as a thought leader and national convener on optimizing human performance. Research activities will fuel collaboration between Dartmouth Athletics and academic programs, with possible areas of emphasis including cognitive science, quantitative social sciences, engineering, and biomechanics.
Gifts to the Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens '79 Scholarship Fund are final and subject to the terms of the Fund.
Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens ’79 Scholarship Fund
Dartmouth is establishing an endowed scholarship fund to honor Buddy and Kirsten Teevens for the culture of inclusivity they fostered.
Under Ivy League rules, there is no link between a student’s participation in varsity athletics and any need-based financial aid awarded by a member institution to a student-athlete. However, a robust need-based financial aid program is essential to the success of Dartmouth’s varsity athletics. Nearly 400 varsity athletes receive need-based financial aid each year, including approximately 80 members of the football team.
The scholarship fund will establish an enduring connection between each scholarship recipient and the Teevens legacy. The goal is to have four Teevens Scholars, one in each undergraduate class.
A $250,000 matching grant from a community member will double any gift, at any level, made to the scholarship fund by December 31, 2024.
Gifts to the Kirsten and Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens '79 Scholarship Fund are final and subject to the terms of the Fund.
Football Program Excellence
Under Teevens’s leadership, Dartmouth strengthened the football program in multiple ways over the past four decades. Additional investments through named coaching endowments, targeted renovations to facilities, and other philanthropic support for athletic excellence will ensure the continued strength of Big Green football.
Specific investments include endowing the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and director of football recruitment positions; making significant upgrades to the football team’s locker room; and integrating cutting-edge equipment and technology in the Floren Strength Training Center and the Floren Team Room, which can accommodate the entire football team.
Gifts to the Friends of Dartmouth Football will enhance the team’s national recruiting efforts, advance strategic staff recruitments, and support ongoing efforts to upgrade technology.
Email us to learn more about any of these initiatives.
Teevens Stadium Dedication & Dartmouth vs. Penn
Dartmouth will rededicate its historic stadium as Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field on Friday, October 4. The ceremony will begin at 5:30 p.m., and all members of the Dartmouth community are invited to attend. Registration is requested. The following day, the Big Green football team’s Ivy League season opener against Penn, featuring more tributes to Teevens, will kick off at 1 p.m.
Memorial Field, Hanover, NH