HANOVER — At the stadium that will soon be named in his honor, friends, family and colleagues of late Dartmouth College football coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens gathered on Saturday for an emotional celebration of life.

Teevens, a 1979 Dartmouth graduate who coached his alma mater from 1987-91 and again from 2005 onward, passed away on Sept. 19 from severe injuries in a cycling accident he suffered six months prior.

“I saw him embody everything that we want to be at Dartmouth. When we talk about independence and thinking differently, that was Buddy,” said Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock in her opening remarks.

Dartmouth trustee and fellow class of 1979 member Peggy Epstein Tanner described the former star athlete as “most humble, selfless MVP you ever saw … who just enjoyed hanging out with his Beta brothers, listening to Jimmy Buffett and enjoying life’s little moments” during his time as a student and encouraged the many attendees to “be a Buddy to one another.”

Athletic director Mike Harrity spoke on the instant connection Teevens formed with him when Harrity took the athletic director role in 2022, showing a picture of the special “play” Teevens drew on a piece of paper during Harrity’s first week on the job. The “play,” depicting an upward arrow with two figures standing at the bottom of it, represented that the athletics department “could only go up, but Buddy … would help whatever way he could.”

Two of Teevens’ oldest friends, longtime Harvard football coach Tim Murphy and his younger brother, Class of 1982 member Shaun Teevens, each spoke of the compassionate yet fierce competitor that Teevens was since the very beginning. They told stories of the building of “Teevens Spa,” a rudimentary gym in the ancient barn of the Teevens house in Pembroke, Mass., that Buddy thought necessary for the boys’ advancement and of swimming competitions off Massachusetts coast that drew the attention of the Coast Guard due to how far they had traveled from shore.

“A better coach than I ever was,” Murphy described of Teevens, a man who acted as a mentor, close friend and rival to the Ivy League’s winningest coach of all time.

Associate Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering Doug Van Citters spoke on the endless enthusiasm Teevens displayed for all types of projects, saying that “when Buddy was excited about something, you were excited about something. When it came to mission-driven innovation, he could inspire everyone around him to find a way.”

Two former Dartmouth players and current front office members for the Los Angeles Rams, Matt Shearin and Tony Pastoors, spoke on the impact Teevens had on them as a leader both on and off the field.

Pastoors noted the compassion and instincts Buddy showed when Pastoors “didn’t look right,” leading to Pastoors being diagnosed just in time for a viral heart infection that could have cost him his life if unchecked.

Shearin remembered the biggest lesson Teevens taught him, saying, “It doesn’t hurt to shut up and listen to someone’s story. You just might become a better person by doing so.” He also remembered the support Teevens gave him in early 2023 after he lost his mother and became sole guardian to his teenage sister.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell praised Teevens as an endlessly energetic driver for player safety, saying that “Buddy Teevens inspired me to look outside my boundaries and what I think may be possible,” and sharing stories of the enthusiasm Teevens showed for everything he did.

Former NFL quarterback Archie Manning remembered his time with Teevens’ help as one of the inaugural coaches in founding the Manning Passing Academy in 1992, an annual football camp that now counts hundreds of NFL players as alumni.

In the nearly 30 years the two spent running the MPA, Manning noted they worked in lock step to run the camp because Teevens was “more than a coach, more than a leader, more than an innovator, but a friend.”

Cleveland Browns assistant wide receivers coach Callie Brownson, the first woman to ever coach in NCAA Division I football as a member of Teevens’ staff in 2018, said: “I am not who I am, or where I am today, without Coach Teevens taking a chance on me, and I’m eternally grateful for that.” She noted that even after she left Dartmouth for the NFL, Teevens remained a friend and mentor to her.

Curt Oberg, one of Teevens closest friends in his role of special assistant to the head coach, closed the ceremony out by praising “someone who accomplished so much and yet remained so humble,” before leading the assembled crowd in the Dartmouth alma mater as he and Teevens famously did for each team they had at Dartmouth.

Dartmouth will honor Teevens’ legacy one final time on Oct. 5 prior to the Big Green’s game against Penn, when the stadium will be officially christened Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field.