Tony Reno, former Yale football coach who won five Ivy League titles, dies at 52

Tony Reno, the highly successful former head coach of the Yale football team who guided the Bulldogs to five Ivy League championships, has died at the age of 52.

His death was announced on Friday by the university's athletic department. Reno stepped down from his position in February after taking medical leave, having battled a neurodegenerative disease since August 2025.

Despite his illness, Reno coached throughout the entire 2025 season. It proved to be one of the most remarkable chapters in the football programme's long history, ending with an Ivy League title and Yale's first-ever NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff victory. In that game, the Bulldogs overcame a 28-point deficit to defeat Youngstown State 43-42.

A legacy of mentorship

Victoria Chun, Yale's athletic director, said Reno approached every day with "humility, compassion, and purpose."

"While his accomplishments on the football field were remarkable, it is the relationships he built and the lives he changed that will define his enduring legacy," Chun said in a statement.

Reno was appointed head coach in January 2012, returning to New Haven where he had previously worked as an assistant coach between 2003 and 2008. He also spent three years on the coaching staff at rival Harvard.

Over 14 seasons, Reno built an 83-49 record, securing his place as the second-winningest coach in Yale football history. Only the legendary Carm Cozza, who won 179 games and 10 Ivy League titles between 1965 and 1996, has more victories.

Reno's teams won conference titles in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2025. He also turned the tide in Yale's historic rivalry with Harvard, winning seven of his last nine matchups against the Crimson. He was named Ivy League Coach of the Year in 2022.

Family and football

His successor and current Yale head coach, Kevin Cahill, said Reno was a man who always put his family first.

"As a coach, Tony loved his players and held them to a standard they often didn't know they were capable of reaching," Cahill said. "He was hard on them and demanding, but every day, they knew he cared about them."

Reno is survived by his wife, Toni, and their three children, Dante, Angelina, and Vince. Dante Reno is currently a quarterback on the Yale team. He started this season's opener against Holy Cross before suffering an elbow injury.

Yale is scheduled to play its home opener on Saturday against Merrimack.