Tony Reno, who guided Yale to 5 Ivy League football titles, dies at 52 — SkimNews
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- Tony Reno died at 52, announced Friday by Yale, which did not disclose a cause of death; he had stepped down in February citing health issues and had been on medical leave since the end of last season.
- Reno went 83-49 as Yale's head coach from 2012 to 2025, winning five Ivy League titles and finishing second on the program's all-time wins list behind Carm Cozza (179 wins, 10 Ivy titles from 1965-1996).
- Yale became the Ivy League's first automatic qualifier to the NCAA FCS playoffs in Reno's final season and erased a 28-point deficit to beat Youngstown State for the program's first-ever postseason victory.
- Reno was a two-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, won seven of his last nine meetings against rival Harvard, and led the Bulldogs to six winning records over his final eight seasons.
- Dante Reno, Tony's son and a former four-star recruit who transferred from South Carolina, opened this season as Yale's starting quarterback before suffering an elbow injury in the opener vs. Holy Cross; he had thrown for 2,498 yards and 21 touchdowns as a freshman last fall while guiding Yale to a 9-3 record and the Ivy League title.
- Reno is survived by his wife Toni and their children Dante, Angelina, and Vince; before taking over at Yale in 2012, he spent six seasons as a Yale assistant (2003-2008) and three years on Harvard's staff.
Why it matters: Reno's five Ivy titles over 14 seasons made him the second-winningest coach in program history, and his tenure delivered Yale's first-ever FCS playoff win — a milestone that reshaped how the Ivy League competes in the postseason. His death comes just months after he stepped down for health reasons, leaving successor Kevin Cahill to sustain a program that had become the conference's first automatic NCAA qualifier.
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