Dartmouth College football coach had leg amputated after bicycle crash
Buddy Teevens, a Dartmouth quarterback from 1975 to 1978, is in his second stint as the Big Green's head coach after returning to the role in 2005 following an initial run from 1987 to 1991.
Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens had his right leg amputated after a bicycle crash last month and suffered spinal cord damage in the collision, his wife revealed Tuesday.
Kirsten Teevens called the outpouring of support since the March 16 incident in St. Augustine, Fla., “nothing short of amazing” in a statement released by the school. “As Buddy navigates through the healing of his injuries, he is experiencing many positive improvements. Unfortunately, as a result of the accident, Buddy’s right leg was amputated due to the severity of the injury,” the statement read.
“He is alert and communicating with us and ready for transfer to a premier rehab facility to continue healing. Spinal cord injuries are challenging, and if anybody is up for the challenge, it is Buddy. We appreciate your continued respect of our privacy as we navigate this ongoing recovery process as a family.”
Teevens, 66, was injured when a pickup truck struck him around 8:40 p.m. as he tried to cross State Road A1A, the main beach thoroughfare along the Florida coast, while biking home with his wife from a restaurant, according to a police report obtained by the Valley News. Kirsten Teevens said he had been using one of the couple’s beach cruiser-style bicycles.
The report indicated that “no illuminated lights were observed on the bicycle” and that Teevens, who was not wearing a helmet, “was not in a crosswalk or designated crossing area.” He was taken to a hospital near Jacksonville.
Teevens, a Dartmouth quarterback from 1975 to 1978, is in his second stint as the Big Green’s head coach after returning to the role in 2005 following an initial run from 1987 to 1991. He has won five Ivy League championships and is the winningest head coach in school history with a 117-101-2 record. He has also been a head coach at Stanford, Tulane and Maine.
In Teevens’s absence, associate head coach Sammy McCorkle was named acting head coach April 4.
Teevens brought innovation to coaching, eliminating full-contact tackling in practices long before that became a more common approach. As he explained to ESPN in 2019, he used virtual reality and robotic tackling dummies to train his players because studies showed that subconcussive hits, such as those that occur again and again in practices, were linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurological disorders. Eliminating them in practice might result in thousands of fewer hits over a player’s career.
“I have known Coach since I was 12 years old when I attended Tulane football camp,” former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning tweeted after the accident. “There is not a better man.”
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