Nittany Lion

About Nittany Lion

This article is about the Penn State mascot. For the Penn State fight song see "The Nittany Lion".

The Nittany Lion is the mascot of the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania and its athletic teams. It refers to the mountain lions that once roamed nearby the school, and to Mount Nittany, a local landmark. There is also a fight song played during sporting events on campus entitled "The Nittany Lion".

The mascot was the creation of Penn State senior H. D. "Joe" Mason in 1907. While on a 1904 trip to Princeton University, Mason had been embarrassed that Penn State did not have a mascot. Mason did not let that deter him: he fabricated the Nittany Lion on the spot and proclaimed that it would easily defeat the Princeton Bengal tiger. Upon returning to campus, though, he set about making his invention a reality. In 1907, he wrote in the student publication The Lemon: