Is the Nittany Lion breed part of the cat family?
Not really. This type of lion is named after the mount and valley where PennStateUniversity is located. The Nittany Lion is a breed of mountain lion, which used to occupy central Pennsylvania. The nickname was given to the school by H.D. “Joe” Mason (Class of 1907), who came up with the mascot after seeing the Princeton Tiger mascot on a trip with the baseball team to the Princeton campus. Folklore has it that the Great Spirit formed a mountain to recognize a beautiful princess who lived near the mouth of Penn Creek. The princess name was Nittany and the mount was named in her honor. The Class of 1940 later gave the school the Nittany Lion Shrine, which sits in a natural setting among the trees near the schools recreation building on the PennState campus. What’s a Boilermaker Special? Its Purdues old-time locomotive, which is said to be the worlds largest mascot, which weighs 10,800 pounds and stretches over 24 feet in length. The current model, Boilermaker Special V, was built by Waba
