87th Annual Father-Son Dinner: 'Lead by Parties of One'
Eugene Francis “Buddy” Teevens always wanted to be a football player.
As a young boy, in fact, he stuffed a five-pound plate into his oversized gym shorts and cautiously tiptoed onto the scale — so desperate to crack the 100-pound threshold required to play for his first Pop Warner gridiron squad.
He made weight that day — and never looked back.
Teevens starred at Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston, Mass., and Deerfield Academy before quarterbacking the Dartmouth College football team to the Ivy League title in 1978.
He was named the Ivy League and ECAC Player of the Year and played in the Blue-Gray Classic that year, also lettering in hockey and helping to lead the Big Green to a third-place finish at the 1979 NCAA championship.
From there, Teevens has gone on to compile quite the collegiate head coaching resume — with stops at University of Maine, Tulane University, Stanford University, and Dartmouth, where he’s now in his second stint on the sidelines of his alma mater.
The Pembroke, Mass., native, who also worked on Steve Spurrier’s staff at University of Florida from 1999–2001, was the keynote speaker at the 87th Annual Father-Son Dinner, held on Thursday, March 9.
Teevens has long championed leadership and accountability among all of his players — and he did the same to the crowd of nearly 800 fathers, sons, and faculty on hand at Burke Field House.
“Be true to yourself — that’s the sincerest form of leadership,” Teevens said. “We all have chances to lead, but we first have to see ourselves as leaders and lead by parties of one.
“Don’t be the guy who goes along with the crowd — be special. Be the guy who works harder and sacrifices more than the guy who is content to be average.”
Teevens took the podium following traditional remarks from Brunswick’s Athletic Director, Ron VanBelle, and second annual student-athlete speaker John Fox ’17.
VanBelle relived the past calendar year of ’Wick athletics, a period that saw the Bruins amass a record of 209 wins and 62 losses at the varsity level.
“While it’s great to win games and hang banners, at the end of the day the real success is not in the results, but in the process,” VanBelle said.
“So, boys, enjoy the full scope of your experience. Savor the bus rides, the locker room banter, the pre-game meals, and, most important, the relationships you develop with your teammates and coaches.
“These are the real things that make our teams great.”
Fox — a two-sport, two-year captain of the football and lacrosse teams and an honors student — reflected on the overall significance of his time wearing the Brown and Gold.
“As I see it, athletic competition is one of the most important aspects of a Brunswick education,” the University of Virginia-bound senior said.
“Learning to work together, to win together, and to lose together are experiences every young man should have.”
“At Brunswick, we are able to persevere against such strong competition because we play together and have such high expectations of ourselves and each other.”
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