Teevens '79 Presented The Class of 64's Outstanding Leadership Award

At the 2017 Football Awards Banquet on Sunday, April 3, 2017, the Class of 1964 presented its third Outstanding Leadership Award to Dartmouth Head Football Coach, Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III. The Class established the Outstanding Leadership Award at its 50th reunion in June of 2014 to honor those individuals who share the Class’s belief in the importance of developing young leaders to take on today’s challenges.

The Class of 1964 has contributed both personally and financially to support Dartmouth’s mission of educating students for a lifetime of responsible leadership, at the Rockefeller Center and Department of Athletics.

Rockefeller Center Director Andrew Samwick ’64a presented and read highlights of the award citation. In the award citation, the Class of 1964 emphasized Teevens’ commitment to mentoring the whole person of an athlete and his dedication in training the next generation of leaders. Football is his vehicle for “teaching the value of teamwork and instilling the belief that hard work and perseverance can lead to success.”

Sports has been in Teevens’ blood from an early age. His late father, Eugene F. Teevens II ’52, was a hockey letter winner. While at Dartmouth, Coach Teevens also lettered in hockey and helped the team to a third place finish at the 1979 NCAA championship. During his football career, Teevens was an honorable mention All-American quarter-back in 1978, who led Dartmouth to the Ivy League title that year. As co-captain of the team, Teevens ended his Dartmouth football career as not only the team’s most valuable player, but also Dartmouth’s most outstanding athlete.

Teevens’ professional career spans positions as head football coach at several institutions including the University of Maine, Tulane, Stanford. At Dartmouth, Teevens has led the Big Green to three Ivy League titles. During his tenure at Dartmouth, Teevens has restored the College’s rich football tradition and spearheaded major improvements to Dartmouth’s football facilities.

Teevens has also exhibited great leadership and foresight by taking the lead in working to prevent head injuries in football and developing a way of teaching and coaching the game without the need for repetitive man-to-man contact in practice sessions and with safer tackling techniques in games.

Teevens’ classmate and friend, John Currier, a research engineer at Thayer School constructed the prototype for this vision, creating the innovative mobile tackling dummy. The mobile tackling dummy has spread beyond Dartmouth to the entire Ivy League, other universities, and several NFL teams as well. Statistics have already begun to show that the use of the dummies is significantly reducing the number of concussions and resulting in an overall safer sport.

In presenting Teevens with the Outstanding Leadership Award, the Class of 1964 recognized Teevens as a “visionary and gifted leader” whom they are proud to honor for his use of athletics to prepare the next generation of leaders and his work to create a safer future for athletes.

Previous award recipients are Nate Fick '99 and Ron Schram '64.

Written by Rachel Favors '18, Rockefeller Center Student Program Assistant for Communications.