IRVING, Texas (Oct. 9, 2024) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today that Coach Buddy Teevens, who headed the football programs at Dartmouth, Stanford, Tulane, and Maine, will be posthumously honored as the 2024 recipient of the NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award. He will officially be recognized Dec. 10 during the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas at the Bellagio Resort & Casino.
 
"Universally loved and admired, Buddy connected with everyone who crossed his path," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. "He mentored thousands of players and assistant coaches during his 44 years on the sidelines, and his passion for the game led him to become an innovator and pioneer in making the game safer for future generations as well as hiring female coaches. Buddy was a great coach but more than that he was just a great guy who wanted to make the game better for all.
 
"When we first approached him about the Manning Passing Academy in 1996 to help improve the game for high school players, he simply said, 'Let's do it,' and he just became a rock for the event over the years. I can't think of a more fitting tribute to his memory than to add his name to the esteemed list of NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football recipients."
 
"Coach T came to the table with solutions to make the game safer and, ultimately, better," said Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National Football League and a member of the NFF Board of Trustees. "His impact both on college football and the NFL has been enormous."
 
First presented in 1974, the NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award provides national recognition to those whose efforts to support the NFF and its goals have been local in nature or who have made significant contributions to the game of football either to the manner in which it is played and coached or to the manner in which it is enjoyed by spectators. Teevens becomes the 45th recipient of the award.
 
Teevens, who quarterbacked Dartmouth to the 1978 Ivy League title before a 44-year coaching career, suffered life altering injuries during a bicycling accident in March 2023 before passing away on Sept. 19, 2023. He was 66.
 
Teevens became nationally known for his methods to protect players from concussions, instituting a ban on tackling during practice starting in 2010. He continued to pioneer safety innovations in 2015 when collaborated with students at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering to develop the Mobile Virtual Player (MVP), the world's first robotic tackling dummy. MVPs have become widely used by high schools, colleges, and NFL teams as well as adaptations used by the military, significantly reducing concussions.
 
Teevens played an instrumental role in launching the famed Manning Passing Academy in 1996, going on to serve as an associate director at the camp for 25 years and overseeing all aspects of the on-field operations until his injury in 2023. In 2018, he organized the camp's first clinic for women coached by women. Afterwards, he hired Callie Brownson, who was one of the coaches at the clinic, as an offensive quality control coach at Dartmouth, making her the first full-time female Division I coach in college football history.
 
Teevens continued to hire female coaches, welcoming six female coaches to his staff during his tenure at Dartmouth. His vision to hire women changed the landscape at all levels, including the NFL where, in 2020 with the Cleveland Browns, Brownson became the first woman in history to coach a position group during a game.
 
A head football coach for more than 30 years, including two stints at Dartmouth equaling 22 years in total, Teevens, launched his head coaching career at Maine from 1985-86. He landed the top job at his alma mater in 1987, beginning his first tour with the Big Green, which ran from 1987-91 and included a share of the Ivy League title in 1990 and the outright crown the following year. He left Hanover for the top jobs at Tulane (1992-1996) and Stanford (2002-04) with stops in between as an assistant at Illinois (1997-98) and Florida (1999-2001) under Hall of Fame coach Steve Spurrier.
 
He returned to head the Big Green program in 2005, leading the team to a share of the Ivy League crown in 2015, 2019, and 2021. While at Dartmouth, Teevens was honored as the New England Coach of the Year three times, in 1990, 2015, and 2019, and Ivy League Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2021. All told, he led Dartmouth to five conference titles and a 117-101-2 record, including 83-70-1 in the Ivy League, making him the Big Green's all-time winningest coach.
 
Born October 1, 1956, and a native of Pembroke, Massachusetts, Teevens earned an A.B. degree in history from Dartmouth in 1979. He starred on the football team, claiming the Asa S. Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Player of the Year in 1978 after leading the Big Green to the Ivy League title. He earned All-America honorable mention laurels that year while being named the ECAC Player of the Year. He also lettered in hockey, helping take Dartmouth to a third-place finish at the 1979 NCAA championship. He was voted the Alfred W. Watson Trophy as Dartmouth's outstanding athlete as a senior. He is just one of three Ivy Leaguers to win a conference crown as a player and a head coach.
 
On May 18, more than 1,500 of his family members, former players, teammates, classmates, and fans gathered on Memorial Field at Dartmouth to celebrate his life, and Dartmouth announced the facility would be renamed as the Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field, which officially occurred Oct. 5 during the Big Green's Ivy League home opener against Penn. The College also has established the Kirsten and Eugene F. "Buddy" Teevens '79 Scholarship Fund in his honor.
 
Teevens will be honored during the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 10. The 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas will also provide the stage for the induction of the 2024 College Football Hall of Fame Class; the presentation of the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards Presented by Fidelity Investments; and the bestowing of the 35^th William V. Campbell Trophy® to the nation's top football scholar-athlete.
 
For more information on the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas, including how to register for tickets, please click here.
 

2024 – Buddy Teevens, Head Football Coach
2023 – Bill Hancock, College Football Playoff Executive Director
2020 – Don McPherson, Hall of Fame QB & Advocate for Prevention of Gender-Based Violence
2018 – Murry Bowden, Atlanta Hall Management Chairman
2016 – Grant Teaff, AFCA Executive Director & Coach
2015 – Charlie and Pete Gogolak, Placekicking Revolutionaries
2014 – Jim Host, Sports Marketing Pioneer
2013 – Dennie Poppe, NCAA Administrator
2011 – Verne Lundquist, Legendary Network Broadcaster 
2011 – Brent Musburger, Legendary Network Broadcaster
2010 – Dr. Joseph Kearney, Athletics Administrator
2009 – Dan Jenkins, Longtime Sportswriter & Author
2008 – Bill Battle, Athletics Administrator & Marketing Innovator
2007 – The Collegiate Bowl Games, College Football Tradition
2006 – ESPN's College GameDay, Pioneering TV Program
2005 – Prentice Gautt, College Football Pioneer
2004 – Rick Dickson, Athletics Director
2004 – Pat Harmon, Sportswriter & NFF Historian
2003 – Rudy J. Riska, Executive Director of the Heisman Trophy
2002 – Dal Shealy, Fellowship of Christian Athletes
2001 – Thomas C. Hansen, Conference Commissioner
2000 – Tom Nugent, Innovative College Football Coach
1999 – Chuck Neinas, Influential Collegiate Administrator
1998 – Marino H. Casem, Influential College Football Coach
1997 – Jack Lengyel, College Football Coach & Athletics Director
1996 – Robert M. "Scotty" Whitelaw, Conference Commissioner
1995 – Fred Jacoby, Conference Commissioner
1994 – Mike Cleary, NACDA Executive Director
1993 – John E. "Buddy" Leake, NFF Chapter Leader
1992 – Eddie Robinson, Influential College Football Coach/Legend
1991 – Don B. Canham, Michigan Athletics Director
1990 – Bill Nicholas, Tournament of Roses Chairman
1989 – Bob Woodruff, College Football Coach & Administrator
1988 – Lindsey Nelson, Legendary Network Broadcaster
1987 – Chris Schenkel, Legendary Network Broadcaster
1986 – Rex Farrior, Florida Sports Ambassador
1985 – A.F. "Bud" Dudley, Liberty Bowl Founder
1983 – Gov. William Winter, 58th Governor of Mississippi
1982 – Earnest E. Seiler, Orange Bowl Founder
1981 – Edward "Moose" Krause, Notre Dame Athletics Director
1980 – Field Scovell, Cotton Bowl Selection Chairman
1978 – Jack Farcasin, Early NFF Chapter Leader
1975 – Joseph J. Tomlin, Founder of Pop Warner Football
1974 – Lathrop King Leishman, Longtime Rose Bowl Leader