Start
Herington, Kansas
Finish
Overland Park, Kansas
Mileage
140
By Bruce Wood
www.biggreen alert.com
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas -- Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens had a huge mileage day in mind Wednesday as his cross-country bicycle trip headed toward the midway point. When an almost perfect day for cycling drew to a close he had covered 140 miles, an enormous accomplishment for many cyclists but well short of his original goal.
Still, Teevens was more than OK with where his day finished, all because of how it started.
It was while he was grabbing a quick bite to eat at his motel breakfast bar in Herington that he happened across the April 9 copy of Newsweek magazine. Staring back at him: a cover story on cancer in America. Teevens has been wearing a pink breast cancer bracelet since leaving San Diego on May 7 and has grown more comfortable in the role of a cancer awareness advocate with each revolution of his pedals.
Flipping through the pages of the Newsweek he saw statistics on the incidence of cancer that would have startled him if he hadn’t been repeatedly hearing the same thing in the voices of the people he’s met and spoken with each day on the backroads of America.
“Today I stopped at three different high schools and talked with three coaches who had someone in their lives impacted by cancer,” Teevens said from Overland Park, Kan., outside of Kansas City. “One lost his mom to breast cancer at 52. Another’s sister has breast cancer that is in remission. At the third high school I stopped at both the athletic director and football coach had family members with cancer. Everyone I talk to knows someone who has had cancer.
“I walked into a store in Baldwin City to get a banana and an orange and a young woman named Jennifer saw my bracelet and asked if I have something to do with breast cancer,” Teevens continued. “I told her I'm doing this bike thing and she said her mom was just diagnosed with it. She was just a high school-aged kid.”
Teevens climbed off his bike earlier than he planned because of all the Jennifers, the football coaches, the store clerks, the high school students, the cooks and the random others he’s met along the way who have shared their stories. And because of one particular story he read in that Newsweek between bites of a bagel or banana in a small Kansas town.
The story mentioned the R. A. Bloch Cancer Foundation’s Cancer Survivor Parks and how they got their start in Kansas City.
Moved by what he read and wondering if he could help bring a little more attention to the cause, Teevens phoned Hanover and had administrative assistant Karry Smardon touch base with the organization. After several phone calls between Teevens and Roseanne Wickman of the Bloch Foundation the day's plan had changed.
“We’re going to have breakfast and a little press thing, so I didn’t push through,” Teevens said. “They are doing important work. This is an opportunity to help increase awareness and to learn more about what they are doing.”
***
Informed that supporters of his ride have donated more than $3,000 to The 26th Annual Prouty Ride Century Bike Ride & Challenge Walk for Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center as of Wednesday evening, Teevens was humbled.“I'm deeply appreciative of people who have helped out because this touches everybody's life,” he said. “If money can help find a cure then I hope everybody thinks about their uncle or cousin, their sister or their mom or their neighbor. It's shocking and overwhelming to see, in my little world as I'm traveling, how everybody has been impacted. You see big guys tear up talking about losing their mom or their sister and the courage they showed battling.
“You hear cancer and you think the worst but there are some wonderful people doing some tremendously important work and if we can help provide some funding, all the better.”
MORE FROM WEDNESDAY
Teevens’ stops Wednesday were at Council Grove High School, where he met coach Rick Blosser. At Northern Heights High in Allen he met coach Greg French and at Santa Fe Trail High where he spent time with Athletic Director Dave Watkins and coach Curtis Lilly. He came away with the names of two student-athletes he’ll be keeping an eye on.
Teevens on the day: “As rough as it was yesterday, it was absolutely beautiful today. Just a little crosswind. Blue skies. Sun. The roads were perfect. They were a little narrow but there wasn’t much traffic. I saw very few cars but tons of cattle for as far as you can see. And everything was kelly green. It was gorgeous with undulating hills. There were climbs and dips, climbs and dips, but nothing too hard. Lots of old farmhouses and neat architecture.
“It's one of those days you relish as a rider. It was fun. I'd gotten beaten up by the wind yesterday but coming back I felt pretty good.”
The Extended Dartmouth Family
Teevens spent the night at the home of the Monahan family in Overland Park. Mike Monohan, whose son Jack is a sophomore catcher on the Dartmouth baseball team, had been following Teevens’ progress on the Blog and called his cell phone to offer whatever help he could when he realized the coach would be coming through the Kansas City area.
“With all the traffic Kansas City is not a place you want to ride a bike,” said Teevens with an audible shudder. “I don’t know how he got my number (editor’s note: I do ;-) and called me. Thankfully he borrowed his brother-in-law’s truck and saved me just south of the city. I'll spend the night with them. They've rolled out the red carpet. He said he's got a day off tomorrow and will take me (to the Bloch Foundation).
“He’s proud of Dartmouth and proud of his son. What he’s doing is just a great example of Midwestern hospitality.”
On Tap
After his breakfast meeting this morning Teevens plans to cross the state line into Missouri and then, hopefully, rack up some serious miles.
“I’m still working on which road to take,” he said last night. “But Missouri is not as wide as Kansas, so I hope it doesn't take me as long. Today I ran 18-20 mph most of the time. Now if I can just get a decent tailwind ... .”
Today's map
Note: To contribute to the effort to fight cancer, visit The Prouty general donation site and type in the name Buddy Teevens.
Note2: As of Thursday morning, you have made Buddy Teevens' ride the No. 3 fundraiser for the Prouty. Thanks to everyone from Buddy and the Blog.
Here's the text of the story WCAX TV did on Teevens' ride.
Dartmouth assistant JJ Jackson is racking up serious numbers as a receiver with the Manchester Wolves of Arena2 according to this story. How serious? How about 39 catches for 382 yards and 10 touchdowns. He's also averaging nearly 14 yards per kickoff return.
Dartmouth has a new admissions dean, promoted from within. The college release is here. ... The Daily Dartmouth story is here.
Shawn Halloran, the former Boston College quarterback who had an ill-fated year as offensive coordinator at Penn, has landed at Yale, where he had previously been on the staff.
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