Perhaps the most notable accolade for Carm Cozza at his recent retirement announcement came from Tom Beckett, Yale's director of athletics. After citing the exemplary qualities the University would be seeking in its next head football coach, Mr. Beckett concluded, "I guess we're looking for another Carm Cozza."
Whoever succeeds Coach Cozza will be the first newly appointed mentor of the Bulldogs since 1965, when Coach Cozza took the helm for what would be the first of 32 seasons, a tenure that will end Nov. 23 when Yale plays Harvard in Cambridge. Coach Cozza, with his senior players on hand, announced Sept. 7 at the Smilow Field Center that the coming gridiron campaign would be his last at Yale.
"It's not often an individual gets an opportunity to do something he truly loves, and I can honestly say there's nothing I would rather do," Coach Cozza said.
The coach had informed his current players two days earlier that the coming season would be his last, and he told the gathering at the Smilow Center that he announced his plans before the season to preclude anyone from believing that an end-of-season announcement was triggered by the forthcoming results of the 1996 campaign. He also observed that his 32 seasons will match his standing as the 32nd head football coach in the school's history.
Coach Cozza said he told his players that his career was proof that they can achieve their goals, no matter how lofty. "Here I am representing one of the top universities in the world for 32 years, so dreams do come true," he said.
Coach Cozza begins his last season with an overall record at Yale of 177-111-5, 10 Ivy League championships, 19 winning seasons and an Ivy League mark of 134-78-5, but the recurring theme during the day of his announcement was how he helped prepare the student-athletes he coached for their years after Yale.
"Carm exemplifies the best virtues of a human being," said President Richard C. Levin. "He's a molder of character, a teacher and someone who deeply believes in what he does."
The 66-year-old coach, who said his teams' members were like a second family, noted with pride that all but seven of the players he ever coached graduated. Five of his players became Rhodes Scholars.
"The only tongue-lashings any of them ever got were over their studies and not over football," he told the New York Times.
Coach Cozza also tutored his assistants in the coaching craft, preparing 11 of them for college head coaching jobs elsewhere.
While Coach Cozza has patrolled the sidelines of the Yale Bowl for 31 seasons, the other Ivy League schools sent teams led by a total of 40 different head coaches against him, and his current counterparts all praised him.
"Carm Cozza is the Ivy League," said University of Pennsylvania Coach Al Bagnoli. "That's it in a nutshell." Only three other current college football coaches in the nation have been at their schools longer than Coach Cozza has been at Yale.
Mr. Beckett said that a search committee would be formed immediately to identify potential successors to Coach Cozza and that hopefully a new coach would be named by the end of the year. Coach Cozza will continue to play a role at Yale following his coaching tenure, added the athletic director.
A native of Parma, Ohio, Coach Cozza attended Miami of Ohio, playing offense and defense under two other coaching legends, Ara Parseghian and Woody Hayes. He played professional baseball and coached at his alma mater before joining the Yale coaching staff as an assistant in 1963. He served as Yale's director of athletics in the 1976-77 academic year.
The Cozza Legend
Achievements and Honors
Overall Record: 177-111-5, 12th most wins among active coaches)
Ivy League Record: 134-78-5
Record vs. Harvard and Princeton: 38-23-1
Kodak District I Coach of the Year in Division I-AA, seven times)
UPI New England Coach of the Year, 4 times) and Eastern Coach of the Year
National Coach of the Week recognition in1981 for upset of Navy
1992 Distinguished American Award of the Walter Camp Foundation
1995 George C. Carens Award of the New England Football writers
Gold Key of the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance
Head Coach 1972 East-West Shrine Game