Tony Reno, Yale football coach who won five Ivy titles, dies at 52
Tony Reno, who spent 14 years as Yale's football coach and won five Ivy League titles, has died at 52, Yale Athletics and ESPN reported.
Fourteen years, five Ivy titles
Tony Reno was the head football coach at Yale for 14 years, from January 2012 through the 2025 season. He died at 52, according to Yale Athletics and ESPN. Reno built one of the most successful stretches in Yale football history, measured both on the scoreboard and in how his players remember him.
Reno took over as head coach in January 2012 and built Yale into one of the top programs in the Football Championship Subdivision. He finished with 83 career wins, the second-most by a head coach in Yale football history. That mark trails only one other coach in the program's past, a measure of how durable his tenure was.
Under Reno, Yale won Ivy League championships in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2025. He also had a strong hand in the rivalry with Harvard, winning seven of his final nine meetings with the Crimson. Yale Athletics said his program was defined by success in the classroom and in the community as well as on the field.
A final season to remember
Reno's last year on the sideline, in 2025, turned into one of the best seasons in school history. Yale won the Ivy League title and claimed the conference's first automatic berth to the NCAA FCS Playoffs, a bid no previous Yale team had secured under that arrangement. The Bulldogs then beat Youngstown State 43-42 in a comeback to reach the second round, and finished the season ranked No. 13 nationally.
What colleagues said
Yale athletic director Victoria "Vicky" Chun said Reno "devoted his life to serving others" and "believed deeply in the power of mentorship." Current Yale head coach Kevin Cahill, who worked alongside Reno, said "family always came first" for Reno and that he "was hard on them and demanding" with players, but that they always knew he cared. Cahill added that for Reno, "it was never about him or simply about winning championships."
Family and legacy
Yale Athletics said its thoughts are with Reno's wife, Toni, and his children, Dante, Angelina, and Vince, along with the rest of the Reno family. The university's statement linked Reno's personal life directly to his legacy at the program, noting the bond between the coach, his players, and his own family across his 14 years leading Yale.
Cahill said that along the way, "we won a lot of football games," but that Reno's real focus was developing players into leaders. Reno's program paired success on the field with performance in the classroom and in the community, and his tenure restored Yale football to national prominence.
Facts per ESPN, Yale Bulldogs. Opinion is the taproom's.