A must-watch for all alumni, students and friends of Dartmouth

Here is the link for the recent webcast discussion of the role of football and athletics at Dartmouth.

Hosted by the president of the Alumni Council, moderated by College Football Hall of Famer Murry Bowden ’71, and including President Wright, Athletic Director Josie Harper, and new (and old) Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens ’79.

Very, very interesting and “historic” in President Wright’s words.

The idea for the webcast, which runs approximately ninety minutes, came from none other than last year’s Commencement speaker and former football player Jeffrey Immelt ’78, CEO of General Electric. He also recommended that Bowden moderate the panel. As you’ll see in the webcast, Bowden pulls no punches and does a fine job.

President Wright is also to be commended for his candid participation. He is very knowledgeable about Dartmouth athletics and for those of you who have had the opportunity to discuss Ivy League sports with him, he is a true fan. He makes an interesting argument that the College Fund should not be treated by alumni as an annual referendum on the College. The College admitted us and did not reconsider us term by term. Our relationship with the College ought to be one of unconditional love, a sentiment Kristin and I expressed in our epilogue to last year’s Aegis yearbook.

Harper was also impressive. She is an active advocate for a winning program. Teevens mentioned that he had not considered seriously returning to coach at Dartmouth until Harper visited Stanford when Dartmouth men’s basketball team was on the road for a game. Teevens reaches out to alumni to help with recruiting, by contacting the office with prospects and then leaving the rest up to them, in accordance with NCAA regulations. He suggests mixing up Dartmouth’s schedule after our commitments to playing the same 10 teams each season expires (which runs through at least 2011…Dartmouth plays the other seven Ivy League schools as well as UNH, Holy Cross and Colgate).

I think the webcast was a wonderfully positive effort to communicate with alumni.