Harvard men's hockey coach Ted Donato has announced he will step down at the end of the academic year. Where will the next Crimson leader come from?
Harvard men’s hockey coach Ted Donato will step down from his post at the end of the academic year, the team announced in a statement Thursday.
"It is with immense gratitude that I have decided to end my tenure at Harvard as head coach of the Men's Hockey program," Donato said. "I am proud and grateful for all the incredible moments, everlasting memories, and relationships from my 27 years connected to the University as a student-athlete, coach, and parent.”
Donato returned to his alma mater in 2004 to serve as head coach, a position he has held ever since. In December, he became the winningest coach in Harvard men’s hockey history, surpassing his own coach, Bill Cleary, with his 325th victory.
During his tenure at Harvard, the Crimson won four ECAC Tournament championships in 2006, 2015, 2017 and 2022. In 2017, the team also won the regular season championship, won the Beanpot Tournament for the first time in 24 years and reached the Frozen Four for the first time since 1994. Under Donato, Harvard reached the NCAA Tournament eight times but only advanced to the Frozen Four once. The Crimson struggled in the last three seasons, having a losing record in two of them, but going .500 in the 2025-26 season.
Donato was the captain of the Crimson during his playing career and helped the school win their only NCAA Championship in 1989. He was drafted by the Boston Bruins 98th overall in 1987 and would later be named one of the 100 most legendary players of the club in 2023 as the first American-born player to lead the team in goals. Donato played 793 games in the NHL, recording 347 points. He also led Team USA in scoring at the 1992 Winter Olympics; with his son, Ryan, also doing so in 2018, they are the only father-son duo to lead Team USA in scoring in their respective Olympics and just the third ever to play at the Olympics.
This is the third Ivy League coaching position to turn over this season. Yale coach Jeff Hamilton became the third Bulldogs coach in the 2025-26 year with his appointment in April after the sudden retirement of Keith Allain in August 2025 forced Joe Howe to serve as interim coach for the 2025-26 season. Brown appointed Tom Upton as its new head coach in February while he was still an assistant coach at UMass Amherst after former coach Brendan Whittet resigned to take a family medical leave.
"I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to work with such talented and driven student-athletes and staff of the highest character,” Donato said. “With the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, I believe it is the right time to pass the torch to the next leader of the Harvard Men's Hockey program."
xThe Ivy League teams are among the last schools to engage in no revenue-sharing and offer no scholarships, making the positions particularly difficult in this new era of college athletics. The search for the next leader of Harvard men’s hockey is already underway.