Former Dartmouth football Assistant Head Coach Pat O'Leary filed suit against the College last week in U.S. District Court, alleging that new Head Coach Buddy Teevens dismissed him because of his age.
Teevens let go of the 57-year-old defensive line coach in January, ending O'Leary's 16-year tenure with the Dartmouth football program.
O'Leary claimed Teevens told him the football program needed younger coaches who could stay at the College longer, according to Associated Press reports.
O'Leary could not be reached for comment.
O'Leary's contract expired last year and Teevens chose not to rehire the assistant when he took over the reins of Dartmouth's ailing football program in January, according to College General Counsel Robert Donin.
"Coach O'Leary was not fired. Dartmouth honored his contract. After the contract expired, he was not rehired," Donin said.
Teevens hired James Jones to replace O'Leary. Jones graduated from Texas Southern University in 1997 and worked there as a student assistant, coaching the defensive tackles. Jones came to Dartmouth from his post as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas.
Teevens refused to comment on the issue, saying that it would be inappropriate for him to speak about a pending case.
Donin said O'Leary's allegations are unfounded and that Dartmouth will defend itself in court.
"Everybody knows that in football a new head coach gets to choose his own assistant coaches. That's what happened here. Coach O'Leary's age did not enter into the decision, and there is no merit to his lawsuit," Donin said.
Teevens' nine-man coaching staff consists of two members of former Head Coach John Lyons' regime and seven new coaches. O'Leary is older than all members of the current staff, whose average year of college graduation is 1995.
Since his dismissal as Dartmouth's defensive line coach, O'Leary has taken a similar post at The College of the Holy Cross, whose football team beat Yale University this weekend 22-19 in New Haven, Conn.
O'Leary played collegiate football at Missouri Valley College until he joined the United States Army.
After his time in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam, he served as an officer in the New York Police Department from 1970 to 1979. O'Leary graduated from the New York Institute of Technology in 1976.
Before coming to Dartmouth in 1989, O'Leary was Columbia University's defensive coordinator.
