According to “The Nittany Lion: An Illustrated Tale,” the nickname was born in 1904 before a baseball game against Princeton. A Penn State player, Harrison “Joe” Mason, heard an opponent brag about his mascot, the Tigers. Mason responded: “Well, up at Penn State we have Mount Nittany right on our campus, where rules the Nittany Mountain Lion, who has never been beaten in a fair fight.” Penn State beat Princeton 8-1.
Though mountain lion sightings are still reported in Pennsylvania, the state’s game commission said there’s no evidence today of a breeding population — near Mount Nittany or anywhere else in Pennsylvania.
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Nittany Lions, Tigers and Buckeyes, oh my: How College Football Playoff teams got their names
