THE ANCIENT EIGHT

A prolific sportswriter chronicles an Ivy League football season shadowed by tragedy.

Feinstein’s 50th book is frequently upbeat, lauding the conference’s rich heritage, standout players, and academic standards. But his account of the 2023 campaign, based on interviews with more than 80 players and coaches from all eight teams, begins with the league in mourning. Dartmouth’s longtime coach Buddy Teevens was bicycling when a truck hit him in March 2023. He died from his injuries on Sept. 19 of that year, days before Dartmouth’s home opener. Teevens’ death was especially hard on another Ivy coach, Harvard’s Tim Murphy. They “had been best friends ever since” Little League, writes Feinstein, recounting Murphy’s sorrowful visits to his hospitalized friend’s bedside. The author lauds Teevens for being one of the first college coaches to reduce the practice-session contact drills that might hasten brain injuries. But Feinstein soon shifts his focus to the league’s traditional “ten games in ten weeks” schedule, which more than one player likens to a “sprint.” Feinstein introduces readers to charismatic players like the aptly named Brown wide receiver Wes Rockett and Cornell quarterback Jameson Wang, former benchwarmers who developed into stars. Feinstein hails the league’s commitment to classroom excellence, but aside from mentioning that spring practice is scheduled “around the players’ academic schedules,” he offers scant details about the football-schoolwork balance. Feinstein came to prominence with A Season on the Brink (1986), his candid portrait of a volatile college basketball coach, yet his depictions of current Ivy football coaches are conspicuously mild. He celebrates the league’s longevity, noting that several schools have been playing football since the 19th century, but rightly criticizes the conference for having just “two Black head football coaches in history.”

An admiring, knowledgeable, occasionally superficial look at one of college football’s storied leagues.