Dartmouth’s Teevens struck by pickup while bicycling, suffers ‘serious injuries’

By TRIS WYKES

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 03-20-2023 9:00 PM

Longtime Dartmouth College football coach Eugene “Buddy” Teevens and his wife were bicycling home from a restaurant dinner Thursday night when he was struck by a pickup truck and injured, his wife, Kirsten Teevens, said on Monday.

“He has sustained serious injuries and is currently hospitalized,” Kirsten Teevens wrote in a text from the St. Augustine, Fla. area, where the family owns a second home. “He is a healthy man and hopefully he will have a full recovery. We are very appreciative of all the support and the outpouring of love.”

Buddy Teevens, 66, was trying to cross state road A1A, the main beach thoroughfare the runs along Florida’s Atlantic coast. He was struck by a 40-year old female driver at 8:40 p.m, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper’s preliminary crash report noted.

The report described his injuries as “critical,” which typically means a patient requires care in a hospital’s intensive care unit. It states that “no illuminated lights were observed on the bicycle” and that Teevens “was not in a crosswalk or designated crossing area.” He was not wearing a helmet.

Teevens, whom Kirsten Teevens described as using one of the couple’s beach cruiser-style bicycles, was transported to Orange Park Medical Center, just south of nearby Jacksonville. St. Augustine is a city of approximately 15,000, a short distance down the coast.

Dylan Bryan, the highway patrol’s public affairs officer for the region, wrote in an email that the full crash report has not been completed.

Dartmouth athletics, which sent out initial news of Teevens’ crash on Saturday, had no further updates Monday. On the college’s football field, the “D” at the 50-yard line was shoveled of snow, a task Teevens usually undertakes when he is in town. Dug out of the snow to the left of the “D” were the letters “B” and “U.”

Concern for the coach and his family has flowed in from far and wide. Buddy Teevens has a. extensive network of friends and acquaintances accumulated during a professional career that began immediately after his 1979 Dartmouth graduation.

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“I have known Coach since I was 12 years old when I attended Tulane football camp,” tweeted former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, referring the New Orleans university at which Teevens coached during the 1990s. “There is not a better man.”

Associate head coach Sammy McCorkle, who has filled in for Teevens on the rare occasions he’s missed practice, likely will be announced as the interim head coach in the near future.

At Dartmouth since 2005, McCorkle will take the helm of a team that begins spring practice April 4.

In addition to the news about their head coach, Big Green players are also grappling with the death of offensive lineman Josh Balara, who succumbed to an extremely rare form of cancer on Thursday in his native Dallas, Pa.

“It’s been a heck of a week,” said offensive line coach Keith Clark, himself recovering at his Lebanon home after a recent hip replacement. “It’s a pretty helpless feeling right now. You never know what can be snatched away in an instant.”

Clark paused, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes. His voice, always somewhat gravely, deepened and thickened as he spoke about Balara, whom he visited in Pennsylvania several days before his death, and Teevens, who brought Clark to Dartmouth 13 years ago.

“Buddy’s connected to Dartmouth in a way few others are,” Clark said. “He’s so invested in the program and our players because he was one of them once. He’s such a tremendous lighthouse for the college.”

Teevens is 117-101-2 in two stints as his alma mater’s head football coach. He coached Dartmouth from 1987-91, sharing one Ivy League title and winning another outright. He left for Tulane and was an assistant at Illinois and Florida before becoming head coach at Stanford.

Teevens returned to the Big Green in 2005. Dartmouth shared the league title in 2015, 2019 and 2021. Teevens was honored as the New England coach of the year in 1990, 2015 and 2019.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.

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