You're a real fan, Brenda! You should have named this "I have 1500 posts!" Everyone would have had a party for you! Congratulations for being such a gabby cat lover!
All you wanted to know about Penn State's sports' mascot--and a whole lot more! (from Google.com)
STATE NITTANY LION
Nittany Lion Legend
Penn State's athletic symbol, chosen by the student body in 1906, is the mountain lion which once roamed central Pennsylvania. H.D. "Joe" Mason, a member of the Class of 1907, conducted a one-man campaign to choose a school mascot after seeing the Princeton tiger on a trip with the Penn State baseball team to that New Jersey campus. A student publication sponsored the campaign to select a mascot and Penn State is believed to be the first college to adopt the lion as a mascot.
Since Penn State is located in the Nittany Valley at the foot of Mount Nittany, the lion was designated as a Nittany Lion. In regional folklore, Nittany (or Nita-Nee) was a valorous Indian princess in whose honor the Great Spirit caused Mount Nittany to be formed. A later namesake, daughter of chief O-Ko-Cho, who lived near the mouth of Penn's Creek, fell in love with Malachi Boyer, a trader. The tearful maiden and her lost lover became legend and her name was given to the stately mountain.
Here is the Nittany Lion Shrine--one of the most photographed spots on campus. I have a few pics myself.
Students camp out during Homecoming weekend to prevent the opposing team's fans painting the statue.
More info from the Penn State website:
The statue was created by Heinz Warneke in 1940 from a 13-ton block of Indiana limestone, as a likeness of the mountain lion that once roamed Nittany Valley. The Nittany Lion has been Penn State's mascot since 1907 but was not officially recognized until this statue was presented as a gift to the University in 1942 from the Class of 1940.
The sculptor was made an honorary alumnus of Penn State as a special thanks. Warneke returned in 1979, at the age of 84, to examine one of the lion's ears damaged by vandals in the fall of 1978. He prepared a cast for a new ear, which was put in place by master carver Vincenzo Palumbo, head stonecutter at Washington's National Cathedral.
Palumbo used a variety of powder chisels to translate Warneke's clay model into a limestone ear, restoring the statue in time for the season's football opener in 1979. A cast of the sculpture was made in the event of additional damage. Palumbo returned again in 1994 to repair a damaged ear.
You can't tell from the picture, but the stature is quite large. I guess cats have always been part of my life.