On Oct. 4, the College renamed its football stadium in honor of late head football coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III. More than 700 people — including family, colleagues, current and former football players and other community members — gathered outside the newly named Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field for the dedication.
The celebration — which took place a little more than one year after Teevens’s death — included speeches by College President Sian Leah Beilock, linebacker Micah Green ’25, Board of Trustees chair Elizabeth Cahill Lempres ’83 Th ’84 and Teevens’s wife Kirsten Teevens. In her speech, Kirsten Teevens said the stadium dedication will allow her husband’s legacy to continue in his favorite 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 said.
Beilock also took the podium during the event. Although Beilock only knew Teevens for a short time, she came to learn about the values he represents, she said.
“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 said. “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 introduced Kirsten Teevens, who was welcomed with a standing ovation.
After thanking attendees and her close friends and family, Kirsten Teevens focused on her husband. She said Teevens would be “so embarrassed” that a stadium was being named after him.
“But the idea is appropriate,” she said. “No place meant more to him and his family.”
Even though Kirsten Teevens did not witness her husband lead Dartmouth to a 1978 title and win an Ivy League Player of the Year during his playing career, she was fortunate to see him as a Big Green coach, she said.
“When the players were stretching before each game, I would watch Buddy walk around to each one of them,” Kirsten Teevens said. “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 also noted that Teevens strongly advocated for women in football. She said she was proud he hired Callie Brownson as the first female Division I football coach in 2018.
“[Brownson] hears Buddy in her head guiding her when she needs it most,” Kirsten Teevens said.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he believes the NFL followed in Teevens’s footsteps.
“[Teevens] opened the doors in bringing [women] into the football operations either as coaches or other positions,” Goodell said 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 only was Teevens an advocate for women in football, but he also cared about his players’ safety. Former College President Phil Hanlon ’77, who attended the event, pointed to Teevens’s development of the Mobile Virtual Player, a tackling dummy meant to reduce player injuries during practice.
“I’ll never forget his creativity,” Hanlon said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “The idea for the MVP was such a creative path.”
While Teevens wanted to improve the sport as a whole, his love for Dartmouth was always evident. Micah Green ’25 — who played under Teevens from 2021 to 2022 — said one of the “craziest Teevenisms” he ever heard was that Teevens would shovel the “D” on the football field when it snowed.
“I quickly learned that it was Buddy’s love for Dartmouth which made the seemingly impossible possible,” Green said 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 ultimately inspired Green to shovel the “D” himself, Green said. He also noted that years earlier, when he was deciding which college to attend, Teevens’s focus on both academics and athletics helped him decide to attend Dartmouth.
“I will try to remind everyone of his values and try to live it everyday,” Green said 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 asked attendees to stand as the Dartmouth College Marching band started to play a drum roll. A green banner then dropped to reveal “Buddy Teevens Stadium” displayed on the gate.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Lempres said the dedication of the stadium was “floated very early” with wide support from the other 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 said.
Former news anchor Jane Skinner, who is married to Goodell and helped organize a celebration of life ceremony for Teevens in May, said many members of the Dartmouth community reached out to a committee established by Beilock about their interest in remembering Teevens. The committee, which worked with Kirsten Teevens, athletics director Mike Harrity and wellness officer Estevan Garcia, then tried to come up with a “few different avenues” for people to remember the late coach, Skinner said.
“When we announced [the renaming of the stadium], people just came forward [in support of the idea],” she said. “… 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 faced the University of Pennsylvania for their first Ivy League matchup of the season and won 20-17 — the first win recorded in Buddy Teevens Stadium.
