Williamsport, Pa., is known as the place 12-year-olds make their sports dreams come true at the Little League World Series. This fall, it is also serving the same purpose for a 58-year-old man.
Tom Cillo, a Williamsport, Pa., native, is playing defensive line for local Division III Lycoming College and is the oldest active player on a college football roster.
Cillo has long been a fixture in the community, and in his late 50s, he decided to finally chase a lifelong dream of playing college football. The Sporting News spoke with Cillo, along with his coaches and friends, to learn how he became the oldest active player in the sport.
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Oldest college football player in 2025
"I grew up in a sports family," Cillo told SN in a phone interview. "I loved playing basketball, football, baseball. When I got to high school, I started partaking in things — you can do the math, you know, drugs, alcohol — and I took a liking to it. Those kind of took the place of some of the other things I loved to do. I just probably didn’t have my priorities straight back then."
Earlier this spring, Cillo was catching up with old friend Dave Bellomo. The two first met in the 1990s at the local YMCA, where Cillo trained and Bellomo worked as a fitness coach. Over a beer, the conversation drifted to the things they wished they’d done in life.
"He's like, 'Man, I really wish I played college football,'" Bellomo said. "I'm like, why don't you? You're not hurt, you're still in shape."
Describing his friend as "in shape" for a guy in his late 50s likely isn't doing him justice. Cillo, who quit playing high school football after just a few days of practice as a freshman, has been powerlifting for over 20 years. In 2024, he set Pennsylvania state and world records for deadlift for his age group, 55-59. His Instagram is full of videos showing off some serious strength—like pushing a pickup truck just because he can:
Here he is casually pulling a fire truck, from this past July:
With Bellomo’s encouragement, Cillo set his sights on his hometown school, Lycoming College. The private liberal arts college has just 1,200 full-time students, but its football program carries deep roots.
The Warriors, who compete in Division III’s Landmark Conference, have been playing since 1895. They were once led by College Football Hall of Famer Frank Girardi, who won 257 games from 1972 to 2007 and guided Lycoming to two national championship appearances in the 1990s.
Cillo is well known throughout Williamsport. He spent more than 30 years working for the city’s Street Department and also served as an equipment manager for various teams at Williamsport High School.
“Lycoming was the school,” Bellomo said. “I told him, because if you go anywhere else, you’re not going to have your hometown behind you. Everybody in this city — it’s a small city — everybody knows you. The whole city is going to be behind you.”
Williamsport has a population of just over 27,000 people, per the 2024 U.S. Census. Cillo then approached Mark Sitler, who played for Lycoming under Girardi and sits on the college's board of trustees. The two also met at the local YMCA years back.
"When he reached out, I was like, 'geez, you serious Tom?'" Sitler said. "Are you genuine and committed to this whole thing? Because you realize, Tom, in case you didn't check, you are 58. And he indicated, he knew what he was doing."
While attending the annual spring board of trustees dinner, Sitler approached current Lycoming head coach Mike Clark about the idea.
Clark, who played for the Warriors in the 1990s, took over for Girardi in 2008. A Philadelphia-area native, he grew up in a family of coaches, including his father and brother. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Rowan and Princeton before joining Lycoming for two seasons. From 2000 to 2008, he served as Davidson’s offensive coordinator before returning to Williamsport.
Clark agreed to meet Cillo at a local Starbucks, where they talked for about an hour.
"I appreciated his candidness and honesty in regard to this situation," Cillo said. "He never guaranteed me playing time or even a spot on the team. It was just, ‘I’m going to allow you to come in and compete.’ And I appreciate that, because I understand the hesitancy of a 58-year-old trying to play college football."
Clark said the meeting was typical of any initial recruiting visit, including instructions on next steps. He added that he liked the idea of having Cillo in his locker room.
"I left that meeting completely convinced that he wanted to do this," Clark said. "Our team a year ago really lacked accountability and doing the little things right. And Tom was very serious. You could tell he was motivated. I thought he’d bring instant credibility to the weight room.
"I knew he would bring value to our team in terms of holding his teammates accountable. And being a great mentor in the weight room, helping guys with some life experience."
In the late spring and early summer, Cillo trained with Bellomo to prepare for the grind of fall camp, working four to five days a week on conditioning, footwork, and stretching.
At the same time, he navigated the admissions process at Lycoming, applied for financial aid, and registered for classes. He was accepted and is majoring in criminal justice.
"I got my transcripts," Cillo said. "I joked that I had to find them in an abandoned one-room schoolhouse to get them. They were nothing to write home about, but Lycoming College had a belief in me."
When preseason testing and fall camp began, Cillo quickly earned the respect of his teammates.
"Besides being strong, we do a conditioning test, and he wasn’t last in his group," Clark said. "He probably was just outside the top half. There were younger guys at his position who didn’t fare as well as he did."
Oldest college football player overcomes challenges
Cillo said some of the hardest parts of fall camp was the sheer physicality of college football.
"I didn't come into this naive thinking 'I can handle this,'" Cillo said. "It is physical, and it's a grind."
Cillo is primarily playing nose tackle along the defensive line, which adds additional challenges.
"Oftentimes you're getting double-teamed by a pair of dudes that might weigh 280 to 300 pounds each from different angles," Cillo said. "And you know, if you think you're tough, you're going to get a reality check real quick. It's tough in the trenches."
As the grueling days of fall camp continued, Cillo contemplated quitting—just as he did three days into his high school freshman year. He watched as some of his teammates quit. But one message he received got through.
"A friend sent me a text at the start of camp, and it simply said, 'be unbreakable.' And I clung to that word," Cillo said. "I tucked it in my brain. And the times that I was telling myself, 'this might be a little too much,' I just, you know, brought out that word 'unbreakable,' and I found a way to get through it."
Cillo stuck with it and made the Lycoming football team in the end.
"It was a tremendous feeling, knowing that some dudes just weren't able to grind through it," Cillo said. "Just knowing that I did left me with a feeling that I earned the right to put this uniform on."
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How Cillo's age affects his relationship with teammates
The Williamsport native has three kids of his own, his oldest being older than his teammates at 32. But Cillo describes the relationship with his teammates as "awesome."
"[During] the weightlifting tests and the conditioning tests, I got their attention right from the start," Cillo said. "And when they saw the things I was doing, they knew I was serious about this. And I earned the respect."
He adds that one of his teammates said he reminds him of his own father.
"He can give advice to these young people who are going through struggles and and they're looking for someone they can talk with and lean on," said Steve Wisner, who is Cillo's position coach and Lycoming assistant since the 1970s. "And at the same time, he's talked to them, and they've helped him whether it be academically or with football. I mean, everybody wants him to be successful, And they admire him for doing this."
Clark adds that in addition to helping out in the weight room, Cillo has fit in with his younger teammates just fine.
"The kids see him working, the kids see him asking questions," Clark said. "They know he's on time or early all the time. So he's earned their respect. The strength part gave him some respect coming in, the conditioning part helps. His knowledge in the weight room has been really good. He's not trying to be them, he fits in with them. He's not acting like an 18 year old, he's just acting like Tom Cillo."
Cillo still working towards playing time
Wisner, who is also a revered figure within the Williamsport community, actually had Cillo as a student growing up. While Wisner admits it’s been a challenge for Cillo to learn the position after so long away from the game, he’s encouraged by what he’s seen so far.
"I think the challenge is just trying to get him to understand the defense," Wisner said. "Get him in a stance, use his hands, understand what we're doing defensively. It’s been a challenge, and he’s very eager to learn. He’s worked at it."
Cillo hasn’t seen any game action in Lycoming’s Saturday games yet. Clark says that not having as many reps as his teammates makes the process of becoming a consistent starter slower.
"He's just had so little football experience coming in," Clark said. "Now he has to learn terminology and scheme. He has to learn a play call, and he has to learn specific techniques and fundamentals for the nose guard on that play. Then he’s got to ask himself, ‘Is the center blocking me? Is one of the guards blocking me? What are my reactions?’ And that just takes reps."
Cillo did get to see his first playing time during Lycoming’s Sunday developmental game, which Clark calls JV games. Against King’s College, Cillo saw action for a few plays.
Cillo is shining a light on Lycoming football. Clark is entering his 18th season at Lyco, and he's compiled an 89-79 record throughout his career. While Clark appreciates the attention Cillo's story is bringing to the program, his team is still searching for its first win of the season.
"I don't want us only to have attention because of Tom," Clark said. "Or people to say, 'oh, of course, he's 58 and can be on the team — they stink.' I don't want that to be the story. I want Tom to accomplish his goals, but in the context of us trying to make our team and program better, and I think you can do both."
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Tom Cillo NIL deal
Lycoming's 58-year-old football player has become somewhat of a viral sensation. He's even cashing in with some NIL deals of his own—just last week, Cillo released an ad with the pain relief cream, Aspercreme:
His story has resonated across the United States, and he's even heard from fans around the world.
"This past Saturday, I got a message from a gentleman in Bosnia," Cillo said. "He said, believe it or not, your news has reached here, and I'm so inspired by what you're doing. I had a woman— this might be my favorite— reached out to me, she is 73 years old. She said, 'I love to sing, and I wanted to join my church choir, but I didn't want to be the oldest person. But I saw your story and was so inspired by it, you prompted me to join the choir.' Stuff like that—it's powerful."
As for what’s next, Cillo plans to continue both playing football and taking classes full-time at Lycoming. He hopes his journey to the football field in his late 50s inspires others to pursue their dreams, no matter their stage in life.
"I truly, genuinely wanted to inspire people," Cillo said. "There are people out there, just like me, who have a desire to do something and the talent to do it, but something holds them back. It might be their own self-doubt — 'What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough?' You know, maybe I should just not try this.
"I would encourage people to write their own script," Cillo said. "If you have the desire and talent to do something within your means, then I’m telling you, 100 percent, go for it."