I don't think there was a direct connection, but that he had talked about founding schools in the Americas. IIRC, there is or was one in Bermuda, and a connection to UC Berkeley.

What I remember about the founding of Yale is that it was started (I think in Saybrook, Conn.) as the Collegiate School, then named for Elihu Yale after he gave them a small library's worth of books. (There may have been a cash donation as well.)