Yale Athletics

When Yale faces Youngstown State in the first-round Football Championship Subdivision playoff game on Saturday, the Penguins’ defensive back Dathan Hickey ’24 will take the field against his former squad.

Prior to his campaign as a graduate transfer with the Penguins, Hickey suited up for the Bulldogs in 30 games starting in 2018 before graduating in 2024. Saturday’s first-round playoff matchup will be the first time he faces off against his former team and alma matter.

“It will definitely be an interesting dynamic to see a player going against his former team in such a high leverage game,” Justin Gallanty, a former Yale football broadcaster, wrote in a message to the News. “I’m sure it’s one of those spots where there will be a lot of players on the other sideline Dathan considers brothers, but for 60 minutes on Saturday that’ll all go out the window.”

Hickey has had a dominant 2025 season. So far, he has recorded 30 solo tackles alone with 27 assisted take-downs, which combine for an impressive 57 total tackles — sixth most on the team, according to Youngstown State’s athletics website. Additionally, he leads Youngstown State in forced turnovers with his combination of two interceptions and two forced fumbles.

Although Hickey has not suited up for the Bulldogs since 2023, his knowledge of the inner-workings of Yale’s team and its defense could prove helpful to Youngstown State.

“I’m sure Dathan has some mixed emotions going into the game, but he’ll do everything possible to help Youngstown State win,” Gallanty wrote. “That’s both on the field and in the week leading up to the game providing as good of a scouting report on Yale as he can.”

After graduating from Bristol Central High School in central Connecticut in 2018, Hickey immediately made his presence felt in his first season in New Haven. In seven games played, he tallied 22 solo tackles, four pass deflections and a forced fumble.

In his sophomore season, he recorded 17 solo tackles and 25 total tackles, as well as six pass deflections and three interceptions — tying the team record, according to Yale Athletics statistics. Things were trending upwards for Hickey going into his junior year, until the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the Ivy League football season was cancelled.

Hickey played in eight games in 2021, recording one interception and four forced fumbles, his Yale Athletics profile says.

His next two seasons were cut short by injuries. He played only four games in 2022 and two in 2023.

Even though he had not played a full season since 2021, Hickey was still appreciated by his teammates.

“Dathan was a great teammate and player,” former teammate Jacob Biggs ’25 wrote in a message to the News, adding that Hickey was “a great player and leader in his time at Yale.”

After graduating with a Yale degree, Hickey chose to transfer with his remaining eligibility from his injuries to Youngstown State, a team then coming off a second-round Football Championship Subdivision playoff loss.

When he arrived in Youngstown, Hickey had recently received treatment for his torn meniscus suffered at Yale, he recently told the Tribune Chronicle, a newspaper in Ohio. While returning from his injury, he tore his meniscus and ACL again in one of his first practices back, he wrote on NFL Draft Diamonds. 

After sitting out of his 2024 season, he came back determined for the 2025 season, despite having largely missed the previous three seasons.

“When I got hurt, I lost that football identity a little bit,” he told the Tribune. “My siblings, my parents and all the stuff they sacrificed to get me to where I am now, I would be doing myself and them a disservice if I didn’t try. So I tell people all the time, I’ll keep going until I physically cannot go again or somebody tells me I can’t play.”

In 2024, Hickey won Yale’s “Molly Meyer Humanitarian Award” for the male senior student-athlete “whose character exemplifies selfless devotion along with compassion and concern for their team and the community at Yale and beyond,” according to a Yale Athletics news release.