Ivy League football season to begin without Teevens or Bagnoli for 1st time in more than 30 years

Updated Aug. 14, 2023 5:37 p.m. ET

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BOSTON (AP) — Ivy League coaches shared stories, praise and prayers on Monday for Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, who sustained a spinal cord injury and had a leg amputated after a bicycling accident.

“He’s really working hard, every single day, to get better,” acting head coach Sammy McCorkle said on the conference’s media day Zoom call. “Everybody that knows coach Teevens knows how tough he is. … We all know Coach T. is a fighter, and he’s going to continue improving, and he’s doing that on a daily basis.”

A Dartmouth graduate who quarterbacked the Big Green to the 1978 Ivy League title, Teevens led the school to five more conference championships in two stints as coach. He is a pioneer in coaching techniques, banning all tackling in practice since 2010 to lower the risk of traumatic brain injuries.

Teevens, 66, was riding his bicycle in Florida in March when he was hit by a truck. His right leg was amputated; his wife, Kristen, also said in a statement that he had a spinal cord injury.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy said he spoke to Kristen Teevens on Monday morning and would visit them at their Boston rehab later in the day.

“They’re family to us,” Murphy said. “They’re doing as well as can be expected. It’s a long road back. Buddy’s the toughest guy I know and if anyone can do it, he can do it.”

McCorkle said every coach in the league has reached out with offers of support.

“It’s a game played by real people,” Pennsylvania coach Ray Priore said. “And you get to be very close with those individuals.”

The coaches also sent their best wishes to Al Bagnoli, who stepped down as Columbia coach this month for health reasons; offensive coordinator Mark Fabish was promoted to interim coach. Bagnoli also coached at Penn in a 30-year career in the Ivy League.

Combined, Teevens and Bagnoli won 14 conference championships and 425 games in 72 total seasons.

“It is impossible to fully encapsulate what Al and Buddy mean to this league,” Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said. “Our sidelines this year will have an immeasurable void.”

Princeton coach Bob Surace, who’s coached against the two since 2010 — and faced them as a player before that — called them both “incredible mentors.”

“This is my first time being on one of these without Buddy and Al,” he said, praising Teevens for trying to make football safer. “I always looked at not tackling as a competitive advantage — that if we’re healthier than our opponents, we win. And Buddy, being unselfish and such a great person, looked at it as the game needed change.

“The things he’s done not only has helped our league, but football at every level.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

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