Tony Levine

Early and personal life

Tony Levine was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Marvin and Harriet Levine, and is Jewish. His father, Marvin Levine, worked as a certified public accountant and played big-band trumpet. His mother, Harriet, was a high school guidance counselor. Both maternal and paternal grandmothers of Tony Levine were pianists. Levine said his parents stressed to him the significance of family among Jewish traditions, and that it impacts his approach to coaching football.

He and his wife Erin have four children (Ben, Asher, Willa, and Eli).

High school and college

Attending Highland Park High School in Saint Paul, Levine was a member of the marching band, where he excelled at saxophone. He became a two-time musical high school All-American at saxophone.

As a high school junior, he joined the football team for the first time, and played wide receiver. His senior year, Levine was chosen for the Minnesota All-State team. He graduated in 1991. While offered musical scholarships to the University of Rochester, Indiana University, University of North Texas and University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, he did not pursue a musical degree.

In football, Levine was recruited by South Dakota State and Hamline, but did not receive any Division I-A scholarships. However, he received a call from a Minnesota assistant, Dave Spiegler, to invite him to walk-on as a receiver, which he accepted. Levine paid for his first two years at Minnesota independently. During the second game of the 1993 season against Indiana State, Levine substituted for injured teammate Omar Douglas. In that game, he caught seven passes for 121 yards. Head coach Jim Wacker then offered Levine a scholarship, and eventually made Levine a starter for the team in the 1994 and 1995 seasons. In his three years playing for the team, he was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten Team member.

He earned two masters degrees, one in physical education from Texas State in 1999 and one as an educational specialist in adult education from Auburn in 2003.

Professional playing career

After finishing his career at Minnesota, Levine joined the Minnesota Fighting Pike of the Arena Football League. However, his professional career only lasted the 1996 season, as the team folded thereafter. In his season with the Fighting Pike, he received 8 passes for a total of 83 yards and 1 touchdown.

Early coaching career

In 1996 Levine began his career as a coach, when he returned to his high school alma mater, Highland Park High School. He served as head coach of the freshmen team before he departed for Texas for a position at Texas State. During his time there, Levine rented an apartment at Pennington Funeral Home in Downtown San Marcos upon learning of the location from head coach Bob DeBesse. His monthly salary consisted of $976.00, and he did not own an automobile. Levine walked approximately one mile to campus each day. He simultaneously attended classes as a student, and earned a master's degree in physical education from the university in 1999. One of Levine's pupils at Texas State was Travis Bush whom he would later hire as an assistant when he became head coach at Houston.

His next career move was to move to Auburn. Similar to his time spent at Texas State, Levine attended classes at the university, and eventually earned a degree at Auburn as an Educational specialist in adult education in 2003.

He later held coaching positions at Louisiana Tech, Louisville and the NFL's Carolina Panthers.

Houston

Tony Levine was hired by Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin to be the special teams coordinator in 2008. During his time in this position, Houston achieved great success, and finished the 2011 season undefeated in regular season play.

He was named interim head football coach of the Cougars after Sumlin left for Texas A&M; however, on December 21—eleven days before the Cougars were due to play in the 2012 TicketCity Bowl—Houston dropped the "interim" from Levine's title and formally named him as the school's 12th head coach partly because of Levine's commitment to continuity. The Cougars then defeated No. 22 Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl. Houston finished No. 14 in the Coaches Poll for 2011.

Levine was relieved after three seasons at Houston on December 8, 2014, with an overall record of 21-17, and three bowl appearances. Levine was let go because his Cougars struggled to win games in which they were heavily favored. On what seemed to be a promising year, the Cougars lost their inaugural game in TDECU Stadium to UTSA 27-7--a disappointment compounded by the loss in the opening game to Texas State 30-13 two years prior.

Western Kentucky

Levine was hired by Jeff Brohm to be the Co-offensive Coordinator, Special Teams Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach at Western Kentucky.

Purdue

On December 31, 2016, Levine was hired by new Purdue Boilermakers football head coach, Jeff Brohm, as the team's Special Teams Coordinator, Co-Offensive Coordinator and tight ends coach.