Tony Reno, who guided Yale to 5 Ivy League titles, dies at 52 - ESPN

Former Yale football coach Tony Reno, who led the Bulldogs to five Ivy League championships over 14 seasons before stepping down in February due to health issues, has died at the age of 52, the university announced Friday.

No cause of death was given.

«Today, we are deeply saddened by the loss of an extraordinary member of the Yale Athletics family,» Yale athletic director Vicky Chun said in a statement. «Tony Reno devoted his life to serving others and approached every day with humility, compassion, and purpose. He believed deeply in the power of mentorship and invested wholeheartedly in the success and well-being of his players, colleagues, and friends.

»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."

In addition to the five Ivy League titles, Reno, who stepped down in February and had been on medical leave since the end of last season, led the Bulldogs to their first FCS playoff victory in program history. He went 83-49 from 2012 to 2025 and was the program's second all-time winningest coach, trailing only the legendary Carm Cozza, who won 179 games and claimed 10 Ivy League titles from 1965 to 1996.

«Tony was a man who valued the important things in life,» current Yale coach Kevin Cahill said in a statement. «Family always came first, and that was evident in the special family he built and the love the Reno family shares. As a coach, Tony loved his players and held them to a standard they often didn't know they were capable of reaching. He was hard on them and demanding, but every day, they knew he cared about them.

»It was never about him or simply about winning championships; it was about developing