The nickname of Nittany Lions is unique in College athletics and belongs to only one school; Penn State University. The question arises, though, what exactly is a Nittany Lion? We did some research and dug up some rather interesting stories.
Penn State had a different mascot at the dawn of college athletics at the school, a live animal that was not of the feline variety at all. It was a donkey named Old Coaly. Before all the Jack Ass jokes start rolling through our minds, let’s examine this piece of history. According to a Penn State online post, the beast of burden came from Kentucky to the State College campus in 1857 as part of the labor effort to build the Old Main structure, in tandem with his owner Piersol Lytle and his laborious son, craftsman Andy Lytle.
Coaly and a couple of long-eared teammates were tasked with dragging heavy limestone blocks to the building site from a nearby quarry. The donkey’s hard work did not go unnoticed by the school's brass because, after constructing the five-story building in 1863, Penn State bought Coaly for the hefty sum of $190 from the Lytles. Though the price appeared steep for the time, the investment in the animal paid off as Coaly was used on the grounds for three decades more, helping workers in farm chores, landscaping, and agricultural missions at local farms. Coaly was never officially adopted by the school as the mascot, but the students held him in such regard that his bones have been preserved, even to modern times, and have been on display at various places on campus. He is also mentioned on multiple plaques around the school.
Now back to how the current name came to be. The Nittany portion is relatively simple in explanation. A local geographical feature has a significant influence on it. Mount Nittany stands prominent in the Happy Valley area. Nittany, believed to have been derived from a Native American name for the mountain, is speculated to mean something to the effect of “one mountain.”
During the 1907 baseball season, the Big Cat theme idea came to PSU sports lore per a story relayed on the Centre County History pages. The hard ballers of the college traveled East to play a tough Princeton team. During their road excursion, one of the team’s players, identified as third baseman Harrison “Joe” Mason, introduced the idea of a mountain cat. As the Penn State team toured the Princeton campus before the game, Joe Mason saw the references to the Princeton Tigers' name. It must have got his wheels spinning because when confronted in some competitive pre-game banter with Princeton players, Joe stated something to the effect that if you think a Tiger is tough, then you never met the Mountain Lion that lives on Mount Nittany. Mason added that that big cat was never beaten in a fair fight, and neither would the Penn State baseball squad. That day Mason was right as Penn State won the ball game over Princeton.
Mason later pitched the idea of the Mountain Lion to a school periodical, and eventually, it took hold and was adopted as the college’s official mascot. By 1914 a song called “Nittany Lion” was published by Jimmy Leyden. The first costumed person in a lion outfit occurred in 1921, but for a decade or two, the appearance of what this big cat looked like was confusing. In 1924 a costume of an African lion with a full mane was used. That is not exactly what a North American mountain lion looks like. This maned representative was banned in 1927, not because of the misrepresentation but because of superstition. Head Football Coach at the time, the legendary Hugo Bezdek, banned the costume from appearing as he felt it had contributed to some losses the gridders suffered.
No mascot appeared until ten seasons after Bezdek left the program. In 1939 a proper-looking mountain lion costume was worn by a supporter, and one has appeared at all sporting events since.
The symbol of the Nittany Lion in either a headshot image or a paw print is found across the nation where PSU supporters are. Additionally, every Penn State campus has its own Nittany Lion statue to salute the mascot's name and bring it pride.
Check out more about these stories in the original sourced articles below.
