Penn State’s Nittany Lion joined a select group of mascots Sunday upon being inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame opened in April in Whiting, Ind., as the “Hall of Fame of North American mascots.” Sunday’s ceremony marked the museum’s 25,000-square-foot museum’s inaugural induction event.
The Nittany Lion, voted into the hall in 2017, was inducted with Sluggerrr from the Kansas City Royals, Tommy Hawk from the Chicago Blackhawks and Benny The Bull from the Chicago Bulls.
The Phillie Phanatic is among the 20 mascots in the Hall of Fame, along with Mr. Met, Ohio State’s Brutus Buckeye, Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and the University of Delaware’s YoUDee.
According to Penn State, the Nittany Lion mascot was created in 1904 by a baseball player to match Princeton’s tiger mascot. The student-worn Nittany Lion suit debuted in 1922.
