Carmen Cozza, 1930-2018
Carmen Cozza, who won 10 Ivy League championships in his 32 years as Yale’s head football coach, died on Thursday in New Haven. He was 87.
His daughter Karen Pollard said the cause was complications of acute leukemia. He died at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale.
Cozza, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002, was named coach of the year seven times by the American Football Coaches Association. From 1965 through 1996, his teams compiled a 179-119-5 record.
In one dominant stretch, from 1974 to 1981, the Bulldogs won seven of eight Ivy League titles, and in almost half his seasons as head coach his teams lost no more than two games.
His most celebrated year was 1968, when his team, led by the future N.F.L. star running back Calvin Hill and the quarterback Brian Dowling, who also went on to play in the National Football League, went undefeated.
But it was the one game Yale did not win that season, against its archrival, Harvard, that proved most memorable.
It was the season finale. Both teams were unbeaten. Yale led, 29-13, with 42 seconds left when Harvard scored on a 15-yard pass. A pass for a 2-point conversion failed, but Yale was called for pass interference. Harvard then ran successfully for the 2 points and trailed, 29-21.
Harvard then recovered an onside kickoff and, on a play that started with three seconds left and ended with no time left, scored on an 8-yard pass. The rules allowed a conversion attempt even though the clock had run out, and Harvard completed a pass for the 2 yards and a 29-29 tie.
The Harvard Crimson banner headline after the game famously declared, “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”
Like that of other Ivy coaches, Cozza’s success was made difficult by the league’s ban on athletic scholarships, enacted in 1945 (though the universities could continue to offer players financial aid).
Still, he turned out 15 players who went on to the N.F.L. Besides Calvin Hill and Brian Dowling, they included Rich Diana, John Spagnola, Dick Jauron, Kenny Hill and Gary Fencik.
Cozza recruited many of his players personally. Dowling had been heavily courted by Ohio State and Michigan but was won over by Cozza’s overtures.
Five of Cozza’s players became Rhodes scholars. Of his 1,500 or so players, only seven who completed their eligibility failed to graduate.
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Carmen “Carm” Cozza, Yale’s longtime head football coach, died on Jan. 4 at the age of 87.
Cozza, the father figure to more than 2,000 Yale student-athletes from four different decades, molded young men into future leaders while serving as the head football coach at Yale for 32 seasons.
“Coach Carm Cozza was one of our nation’s outstanding role models and leaders of young men. His legacy will have a lasting influence on the Yale community and beyond,” said Tom Beckett, director of Yale Athletics.
Dr. Pat Ruwe ’83, a former Yale football captain and president of the Yale Football Association, said: “Today we men of Yale Football, the Yale Football family, Yale University, and America herself lost a piece of our foundation. For over 50 years, legendary coach Carm Cozza represented Yale Football and his community with unmatched honor, dignity, and class. Ferociously competitive yet humble and unfailingly loyal, Coach was once called Yale’s greatest teacher and was the ultimate role model to those young men fortunate enough to play for him.
“I was blessed to stay involved with Coach after my playing days as his team doctor, chauffeur, and friend, and I saw up close the real man, which is where his star shined even more brightly,” said Ruwe. “There was no finer human being who ever walked the sidelines or wore the Yale Blue. We will miss you, Coach. You were loved.”
When Cozza took over the Yale program, Vince Lombardi was leading the Green Bay Packers to an NFL Championship and Lamar Hunt had not come up with the name “Super Bowl” for the championship of professional football. Future NFL star Calvin Hill ’69 was a freshman on Yale’s Old Campus.
From 1965 to 1996 Cozza compiled a 179-119-5 (.599) record in 303 games while earning the admiration and affection of his players and the utmost respect from his opponents.
He is still the winningest coach in Ivy League history, earning him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Cozza led his teams to 10 Ivy League championships and 19 winning seasons. Mixed in with all those wins was a 16-game win streak between 1967 and 1968 that helped make his name synonymous with Yale Football.
Cozza coached in numerous all-star games. An assistant coach for the 1970 East-West Shrine Game in Palo Alto, Calif., he served as a head coach in the 1972 contest. Cozza also served as defensive coordinator in the 1981 Blue-Gray Classic in Mobile, Ala. When the 1989 Ivy League All-Stars went to Japan for the first Epson Ivy Bowl, Cozza was the head coach of the Ancient Eight in its victory over the Japanese College All-Stars.
Cozza was born June 10, 1930, in Parma, Ohio. In high school, he was a stand-out athlete, earning 11 varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He attended college at Miami (OH), playing football under the tutelage of Ara Parseghian and Woody Hayes. He saw triple duty as a Miami quarterback, running back and defensive back.
On the baseball diamond, he pitched and played the outfield, posting a 1.50 earned run average and a career batting average of .388. He briefly spent time in the minor league organizations of the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox before taking a coaching position at Gilmour Academy in Ohio.
In 1956, he was appointed head coach of the freshman squad at Miami, and in 1961, he joined the varsity staff. Two years later, he accepted a job as an assistant coach at Yale under head coach John Pont. When Pont resigned in 1965, Cozza was named head coach. At the time of the announcement, Yale Athletics Director Delaney Kiphuth said, “The future of Yale football is in very capable hands.”
“I’ll be happy to be here all my life,” Cozza said on the day of his hiring.
A recipient of a master’s degree in education from Miami in 1959, Cozza had administrative experience as well. In 1976, he was appointed Yale Athletics director with the expectation that he would leave coaching after a few years of performing in both capacities. Instead, Cozza decided to give up the director’s position in 1977 and remain the football coach.
Cozza not only coached NFL football players, but he tutored five Rhodes scholars and the former mayor of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke. Of the more than 2,000 players he coached, only seven, who remained in his program, failed to graduate.
“Every guy I recruit I tell, ‘If you don’t have a thirst for knowledge, don’t come here,’ ” Cozza once said.
After he retired from coaching in 1996, Cozza served as special assistant to the director of athletics at Yale, while also handling the radio color commentary (1998-2016) for Yale football.
Tony Reno, the current Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Yale Football, said: “Words can’t express how much Coach Cozza has influenced me as a coach and a person since I met him. When I was fortunate enough to become the head coach of Yale Football, we became very close. He became the mentor that everyone would dream to have.”
“It is my job to make sure everything we do with our players and Football family is right by the men who played football at Yale, but also right by Coach Cozza, who built the great family we have today. I look at every decision that way.”
Ron Vaccaro ’04, the radio voice of Yale Football, added: “Carm was the ultimate gentleman. I can’t think of a more impactful leader. He was an excellent teacher because he never stopped being a student of life. He was curious, very well read, and always came up with the perfect one-liner at just the right time. He leaves a shining example for all of us on how to live an inspired life in service to others.”
Cozza, one of the fabled “Cradle of Coaches” from Miami University, earned a George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award from Yale in 2009 and was the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s Distinguished American recipient in 1992. Cozza was also instrumental in raising money for the renovation of Yale Bowl.
He is survived by his wife, Jean Cozza; daughters Kristen (and husband, Dave) Powell, Kathryn (Anthony) Tutino, and Karen (John) Pollard; and grandchildren Michael and Mark Powell, Elizabeth Tutino, and Eric and Christopher Pollard. Cozza was pre-deceased by four sisters, Ange, Pat, Theresa and Josephine.
The services will be private, and a memorial celebration of his life is being planned for the near future.
YaleNews invites readers to share their remembrances of Carm Cozza by sending an email to news@yale.edu.
I was saddened the other day to learn of Carm’s death. I’ve only seen Carm a handful of times since graduation but each time, no matter how much time had passed, he smiled warmly and called me “Freddy.” I’ve heard that Carm could recall every person who ever played for him at Yale and I believe it. As a player, he always treated you with respect. Football never trumped academics while I played. And as a former player, Carm always made you feel special because he remembered you.
As an interior lineman, I didn’t have much one-on-one interaction with Carm. He was the CEO. But his character and integrity permeated the entire coaching staff. I’ve always been proud of my football experience at Yale and Carm was the biggest factor in shaping that experience. He never imposed his ego on the team, never needed the spotlight, and always allowed our team to find its own personality.
I have one enduring memory of Carm when he was angry. We lost to Holy Cross early our junior year. I think we set a Yale record that day for fumbles lost. After the game in the team room beneath the Bowl, Carm gave a short, very pointed speech that made me seriously wonder how difficult life was going to be the following Monday. I dreaded going to practice the following week. We ran a lot of 100 yard wind sprints at the end of practices, and the practices themselves were no picnic. For the rest of that season, we practiced outside rather than in Cox Cage whenever it rained and Carm would find the largest puddle to scrimmage in. We didn’t lose another game while our class was at Yale, notwithstanding the Harvard Crimson headline.
When you play a sport and endure with teammates the same highs and lows, you form a special bond that exists even if you don’t spend time together otherwise. When football season was over, I didn’t spend much, if any, with my teammates. My life refocused on academics and my residential college. Even so, I feel a special loss when I learn of the passing of a teammate. Although I hadn’t seen Carm for several years, I feel a loss in my life with his death. I can recall the last time I saw him and remember his broad smile and warmth. He was an honorable man who left behind a legacy of hundreds, or thousands, of Yale football players who were shaped, in part, by him and who will keep him alive through their memories. Yale and Yale football players were fortunate to have Carm around.
CARM
One of my favorite memories: during practice Carm would sometimes run 40 yard sprints with the team. We ran in groups of 10; the fastest ten players were “one’s,” the next fastest group were “two’s” and on down. Carm would run with the “one’s” and seemingly stayed with them with ease. I ran with the “two’s” and would watch Carm’s joy as he ran and his wry smile on finishing the sprint with our fastest players.
I love you, Carm; save a place for me on your team if I’m lucky enough to meet you there.
Mike Bouscaren
This is Maurice “Ed” Franklin, Yale ’69, Yale Law ’73. I was #15 on the Yale Football Bulldogs — ’67 and ’68 editions.
Like everyone, I was saddened when I learned yesterday that Carm Cozza, had passed.
I met him when I came to visit Yale as a high school senior. I came from a “hotbed” of High School Football, Massillon, Ohio, and I had already taken recruiting trips to Syracuse, Rutgers, Princeton and two or more other places, before I visited Yale.
I was always very comfortable around Carm Cozza. I knew what he expected — my best! As a football coach I felt he was fair, a good motivator and a reasonably effective communicator. He knew how to encourage and when to get out of the way.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to play for him — and win Two Ivy League Championships (’67 & ’68) — well, one was actually a Co-Championship (29-29), but Carm did not hold that against me. He hired me as an assistant Freshman Football Coach my first two years in Yale Law School.
He was a first class coach. First class. Rest in peace.
Maurice Edward “Ed” Franklin, ’69, ’73Law
mef.law@att.net
310-553-3351
One of Coach Cozza’s many strengths was his ability to bring on and retain assistant coaches who were both great teachers and knew how to motivate the players. With that team of coaches we knew we had top professionals who would give us what was needed; the rest was up to us.
Outside of my own father he was probably the strongest influence in my life. Great, generous heart. I likely wouldn’t have played if he hadn’t sent me a letter at the end of my freshman year telling me I had to get my grades (way up!) if I wanted to be on the team next year. At that point with all the talent on our freshman team I wasn’t sure he even knew who I was. Made an enormous difference to me. I really went for it. Never forgot some words he included in the training program he sent around to all of us before returning for our sophomore year fall practice: “If you’re fearful- WORK!; If you’re depressed- WORK! If you’re tired- WORK! …” and so forth. Hard to forget hearing that when you’re 19 years old.
He lives in all of us.
January 4th was a particularly emotional day for me. Having lost my father in the beginning of sophomore year, Carm really became my surrogate father, mentoring me not only at Yale but very instrumental in getting my professional football career started. He was always there for advice and guidance over the years. Our class was the first class he recruited and his being from the Cleveland area helped create an immediate bond between us. Having read a book on Woody Hayes (long time Ohio State coach and Carm’s college coach) and Bo Schembechler (long time Michigan coach and Carm’s college teammate), I forwarded it to Carm and inscribed “Boy, did I make the right decision.” Yale could never hope to have had a better representative of the university and the Yale community. He will be greatly missed.
Carm was our rock. He anchored us and protected us. He taught us to play hard and always to play fair. He respected each of us and loved all of us. And so, we respected and loved each other. With his guidance we became a great team whose bonds continue to keep us together. We are eternally grateful to him and his wonderful family. He will always be our Coach.
I was part of Carm’s first recruiting class and felt welcome from the first moment I met him. The manner in which he conducted himself, both privately and publicly, served as a fine roll model for many of us. I particularly recall his self-effacing sense of humor. At one of our after-season banquets, after a very good season, he spoke of how great his reception from alumni as he traveled the country. Upon returning home late at night from one of those trips, he jumped into bed with cold feet to which his wife Jeanne said “oh my god.” Carm replied that she could just call him “Carm.” At the dinner after the Harvard tie game, he reported that he received a message from a prominent alumnus telling him that there was an 8:15 evening train leaving New Haven that night. “Be under it.”
I usually played golf with Carm at the annual football outing and last August was the first time he couldn’t attend. I missed him then, and of course now more than ever. He was a great man.
sorry to take so long but just discovered the Class of 1969 website (a little slow with technology but did finally buy an iPhone for my 70th birthday)-like Fred, I will never forget Coach Cozza’s angry rant after the 1967 Holy Cross game-while not necessarilly Churchillian in delivery, I think it was his finest hour-he said that “it might be my last year of coaching but I’m not going down without a fight”-I guess the fight worked out as he won the next 16 straight and spent the next 30 years roaming the Eli sidelines-whether he was the best x and o strategist is of little matter-he was a man of courage and integrity and source of great inspiration for those us who played for him-on a lighter note, he called once me into his office late freshman year and asked me point blank if I wanted to play quarterback or I wanted to play (ya’ see I threw spirals but Dowling threw touchdowns)-I opted for the latter and thus began a rather mediocre career in the Yale defensive backfield
There was nothing mediocre about your career. Perhaps you were not “great” but, like most of the players on those teams, you gave your best.