New Hampshire Football Report
Home / College / Traynor earns top Ivy honor

Traynor earns top Ivy honor

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Ivy League and the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) today announced the winners of the Asa S. Bushnell Cup, which honors the Ivy League Football Players of the Year, and Dartmouth linebacker Jack Traynor earned the defensive honor while Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings took home the offensive award. The announcement was made at a special reception and press conference presented by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses in the Mercury Ballroom of the New York Hilton Midtown this afternoon.

A three-time Division I All-New England and three-time unanimous Ivy League First Team selection, Traynor wrapped up his college career with 75 tackles in 2019 — third most in the league — 4.5 of which went for a loss including an assisted sack. The 6-0, 230-pound fifth-year senior from Lake Forest, Ill., also returned a pair of interceptions for a league-high 93 yards (one a 55-yard pick-six) plus recovered two fumbles, returning one 17 yards for another touchdown. He finished his Big Green career 11th all-time with 270 tackles, 16 going for a loss with 1.5 sacks to his credit.

Traynor was twice selected as the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, first for his performance in a 28-15 road victory at Penn (10 tackles, 17-yard fumble return for a TD), and again following a 49-7 triumph at Marist (two interceptions for 93 returns including the pick-six). He posted a season-high 13 stops in the thrilling 9-6 win at Harvard on Nov. 2 and 10 more the following week as Dartmouth defeated ninth-ranked Princeton, 27-10, at Yankee Stadium in a battle of undefeated teams.

Traynor served as a team captain the last two years, becoming just the 13th player in program history to do so in multiple seasons. Dartmouth enjoyed terrific success with him as a leader, captaining the team to nine wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in 138 seasons of Big Green football. His 131 tackles over the last two seasons are more than any Ivy linebacker as well. Traynor led Dartmouth in tackles in four of the games this year and in 14 of the 28 that he played over the past three years.

The Big Green have had the defensive honoree three times in the past four years with linebacker Folarin Orimolade taking home the prize in 2016 and cornerback Isiah Swann earning the award last year.  First bestowed in 1970 and split into an offensive and defensive component in 2011, the Bushnell Cup has been given to a Dartmouth player nine times.

Seven of the nine Big Green selections have been associated with Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens. Teevens won the honor himself as the Big Green quarterback in 1978 before serving as the head coach for six other Bushnell Cup winners — RB Shon Page (1990), RB Al Rosier (1991), RB Nick Schwieger (2010), Orimolade, Swann and Traynor.

Dartmouth also had the first winner of the award in QB Jim Chasey (1970) when the Big Green took home the Lambert Trophy as the top team from the East, as well as QB Jay Fiedler (1992) who had a nine-year career in the NFL (plus was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year for Coach Teevens in 1991).

You must be logged in to post a comment Login