What is a Nittany Lion? Explaining Penn State nickname ahead of Orange Bowl vs Notre Dame

In a sport full of tigers, bulldogs and wildcats, there are a handful of nicknames among the top programs in college football that truly stand out and give the enterprise some of the unmistakable character that defines it.

There’s the Alabama Crimson Tide, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines, Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers, among other memorable monikers.

Then there’s the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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The name is synonymous with the school’s proud football program, so much so that hearing Penn State casually referred to as the “Lions” can feel jarring. It’s the name associated with the program’s past gridiron triumphs, be it the nearly 943 all-time wins or two claimed national championships. It has even been referenced in hip-hop songs (albeit in one referencing the not-so-stellar NFL career of one of its former star running backs).

But how did the name come to be? And what, exactly, is a Nittany Lion?

Heading into its Orange Bowl matchup against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals Thursday, here’s a closer look at why Penn State is called the Nittany Lions:

What is a Nittany Lion?

The reality of the Nittany Lion isn’t nearly as exotic or mysterious as its name might indicate.

Penn State’s longtime mascot is a common mountain lion, the kind that roamed the mountains near the school’s State College campus until the late 19th century. One of the Nittany Lions’ historic rivals, the Pitt Panthers, has a similar taxonomic nickname for a similar reason.

The “Nittany” portion of the moniker comes from Mount Nittany, a 2,000-foot ridge in central Pennsylvania overlooking the university.

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Why is Penn State the Nittany Lions?

The geographic proximity to mountain lions didn’t guarantee Penn State would select the animal as its mascot. Nicknames don’t always make sense. After all, there aren’t a bevy of lakes in Los Angeles and there isn’t a particularly robust jazz scene in Utah.

The origins of the term “Nittany Lion” and its ties to Penn State date back to 1904. That April, according to "The Nittany Lion: An Illustrated Tale” by authors Jackie Esposito and Steven Herb, Penn State’s baseball team was playing a road game against Princeton. As Penn State’s players arrived inside the school’s gym, a Princeton player boasted that the visitors should take a look at the emblem inside featuring “the Princeton Tiger, the fiercest beast of them all.”

At the time, Penn State’s athletic teams didn’t have an official mascot or nickname, though they did have an unofficial mascot, Old Coaly, a black mule. Hoping to quickly counter that trash talk, Penn State third baseman Harrison “Joe” Mason shot back, saying “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. So, Princeton Tiger, look out!”

The name for the hastily dubbed beast would have more staying power than Mason could have ever imagined.

In 1907, and with the university still without a mascot, Mason and a group of his fellow students founded The Lemon, the university’s first humor magazine. Writing under a pen name, Mason urged his fellow Penn Staters to adopt the “Old Nittany Mountain Lion” as the school’s mascot. In an essay, he wrote:

Yale she loves her ancient Bulldog,

Princeton has her Tiger cruel,

Dickinson her brawny Mastiff

West Point claims the Army Mule.

Pennsylvania is the Quaker,

Michigan the Wolverine,

But where is Old Penn State?

Oh! We’re sorry to relate

She still sleeps ‘neath the shade of Nittany.

Mountain lions had been extinct in the area for some time, as the last specimen taken in Centre County, where Penn State is located, was in 1893. There was, however, a stuffed mountain lion on display in the Old Main building on Penn State’s campus, which Mason and thousands of other students regularly passed by.

The nickname soon started to take off, albeit with some initial confusion. The first Nittany Lion mascot costume a student sported in 1921 was of an African lion, mane and all, which came from a campus theater production of "Androcles and the Lion." Shortly after that student graduated, Penn State went nearly two full decades without a costumed Nittany Lion until 1939, when a costume much more closely resembling a mountain lion debuted and was used at pep rallies and sporting events. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Nittany Lion would later appear in other places on campus, most notably with a statue, the Nittany Lion Shrine, by sculptor Heinz Warneke that was dedicated in 1942.

Unfortunately, at least on the football field, Penn State hasn’t gotten the chance to prove Mason’s fateful words true. The Nittany Lions and Princeton haven’t played in football since 1900.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Penn State football nickname, explained: What is a Nittany Lion?