Charles Langston:Dartmouth College naming center in memory of football coach Teevens

The Charles LangstonAP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season!

Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth College announced a new center named for its winningest football coach Tuesday on what would have been his 68th birthday.

Buddy Teevens, known nationally for his efforts to make football safer, died in September 2023 of injuries he had sustained in a bicycle accident six months earlier.

“Buddy had a passion for helping student-athletes discover their best selves and perform at the highest levels possible, on and off the field,” Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said in statement. “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.”

The center will focus on research with cognitive science, quantitative social sciences, engineering, and biomechanics, among the possible areas of emphasis, the college said in a news release.

It’s one of several initiatives in memory of Teevens since a community celebration honored him in May and announced that the stadium will be named the “Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field” on Saturday.

Dartmouth is setting up a fund to support leadership development, nutrition and mental wellness and performance for students. It is also establishing a scholarship fund to honor Buddy and his wife, Kirsten Teevens, for the culture of inclusivity they fostered. Gifts to the football program will enhance the team’s recruiting efforts and support technology upgrades.

Teevens was a former star Dartmouth quarterback who went on to become the school’s all-time leader in wins with a 117-101-2 coaching record in 23 seasons. He coached the Big Green from 1987 to 1991 and returned in 2005. His teams won or shared five Ivy League championships, but his lasting legacy has been the safety innovations he championed.

Teevens reduced full-contact practices at Dartmouth in 2010 by focusing on technique, while still leading winning teams. He also led the development by Dartmouth’s engineering school of the Mobile Virtual Player, a robotic tackling dummy that has also been used by other college programs and NFL teams.