For over a quarter of a century, Ted Bonanno has served as the head men's and women's rowing coach at Fordham. Over that time as head coach at Fordham his crews medaled at the Dad Vail Regatta the first 20 years in a row and 21 years overall. Ten of his crews have also had undefeated seasons. Bonanno's Fordham crews have won 17 national championships, including a Division I National Collegiate Championship, the I.R.A Regatta, eleven at the Dad Vail Regatta, and three at the ECAC National Collegiate Invitational Regatta.

In 2012, Fordham advanced three crews to the Dad Vail Grand Finals. The women's freshman 4 which took home gold by open water, while the varsity lightweight 4 won bronze medals and the varsity open 4 just missed the medal podium, placing fourth. The previous year the Fordham women finished 2nd in the Women's Club 8+ at the Head of the Charles. Bonanno's crews have medaled at the Head of the Charles the last four years in a row.

Bonanno has taken Fordham crews overseas to the Henley Royal Regatta four times and the Women's Henley Regatta twice. His Fordham team has also raced and trained in Ireland, winning the Galway Regatta in 1999.

A 1970 graduate of Marietta College in Ohio, Bonanno began his college coaching career at Rutgers University in 1970 and in 1974 directed their lightweight program to its best team performance at the Eastern Sprints in school history. He served as head coach and director of rowing for Columbia University for eight years during which time his varsity heavyweight eight won the nationally acclaimed Rusty Callow Award.

During his outstanding collegiate coaching career, Bonanno has also been actively involved in domestic and international rowing. While head coach at the New York Athletic Club, his crews won more than 500 medals at US Nationals, and Canadian Henley. Bonanno has also run Senior National Team Olympic Development Camps for the United States Rowing Association during seven summer seasons and produced gold medal performances at US Nationals and Canadian Henley each year. He directed the Nereid Boat Club's summer program for four years, and brought Nereid to national prominence with a second place finish in men's and women's rowing at the 2002 US Rowing Championships. In 2009 Bonanno directed the program for the New York Rowing Association and produced their first ever medals at US Nationals.

Internationally, Bonanno rowed on the U.S. National Team in the 1970's and has continued competing worldwide as head coach of national teams for Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and India. He has been selected to coach at four Olympic Games and has coached at six World Championships and two Pan American Games. In July of 2009, he coached the US Women's Open Double at the U-23 World Championships in the Czech Republic.

In 1999 Bonanno was selected as the Dad Vail Coach of the Year and in 2009 he was the American College Rowing Association Regional Coach of the Year for the Northeast. In addition to coaching, Bonanno has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the U.S. Rowing Association, and chaired the National Lightweight Rowing Committee. He currently serves as chair of rowing coaches for the Atlantic-10 Conference and as an Assistant Athletic Director at Fordham.