Yes, it is possible to install Tomcat 7.0.72, but you'll have to do it "manually".

Here are steps on how to

do so:
Note: visit this question if you want to know why it's not in the repositories: Why don't the
Ubuntu repositories have the latest versions of software?

Prerequisite: you need to have Java installed, and we need its path. Java is usually installed
under /usr/lib/jvm. Once you have installed Java, you can run the command
update-alternatives --config java to show you the exact path; look at the
first entry (the one with a * next to it. You can hit Enter to exit this screen). We only need
the directory after /jvm/. On my machine, the directory was /usr/lib/jvm/java-
7-openjdk-i386/. This answer will assume that this is the Java directory, but you
should change the commands accordingly.

1. wget http://mirror.atlanticmetro.net/apache/tomcat/tomcat-
7/v7.0.42/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.72.tar.gz
• This will download Tomcat 7.0.42 to your current directory.
2. tar xzvf apache-tomcat-7.0.72.tar.gz
• This will extract the files.
3. sudo mv apache-tomcat-7.0.72 /usr/local
• This moves Tomcat to /usr/local. You can choose any path you want. The
remaining commands will assume you have used this path.
4. nano ~/.bashrc - this will open up a text editor. Go to the end of the file (Alt+/) and add
the following two lines:
export CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.72
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/

Remember: this was the path to my Java. Change it to your installed Java.

5. . ~/.bashrc
• This will apply the changes we made.
6. sudo $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh - you should see something like this:
Using CATALINA_BASE: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.72
Using CATALINA_HOME: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.72
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.72/temp
Using JRE_HOME: /usr
Using CLASSPATH: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-
7.0.42/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.72/bin/tomcat-juli.jar

And no errors.
You're done. Point your browser to http://localhost:8080 and you should see the Tomcat
page: