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Get in the Lion Shrine Line —
It's a Penn State Tradition!
Ask any Penn Stater if they have had their picture taken in front of the Nittany Lion Shrine; they will surely say, “Yes!” Local legend has it that the shrine, on Penn State’s University Park campus, is the second most-photographed place in Pennsylvania, second only to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Whether or not this can be proven, one thing is for sure: there’s always a line for a picture with the shrine during popular Penn State events such as Homecoming and commencement weekends!
Origin of the Shrine
The Nittany Lion Shrine — a sleek and angular, sand-colored statue of a mountain lion carved out of a thirteen-ton brick of limestone — crouches at the northwestern end of Penn
State’s University Park campus, and is a symbol of lasting pride for devoted Penn Staters everywhere.
The statue, a gift from the Class of 1940, was sculpted by German-born Heinz Warneke. Named after Mount Nittany, the mountain rising above what is lovingly nicknamed Happy Valley just
east of University Park, the statue was completed in 1942, and was dedicated during Homecoming ceremonies on October 24 of that year.
Guarding the Shrine
The Lion Ambassadors host the “Guard the Shrine” event every Homecoming weekend; at the end of the Homecoming parade, members of the Penn State community gather at the shrine to
protect it from fans of the rival football team and to show their Penn State pride.
This tradition dates back to 1966, when Sue Paterno — during husband Joe Paterno’s first year as Penn State football coach — wanted to fire up Penn State fans for an upcoming game
against Syracuse (then known as the Orangemen) by spreading orange latex-based paint on the statue. Though this washed off easily, the oil-based paint that Syracuse fans later sprayed
on the statue had to be sandblasted off, in only the first of many rivals’ attempts to defile the shrine.
A Symbol of Pride for Penn Staters Far and Wide
There are twenty-three physical replicas of the Nittany Lion Shrine. In addition to the original shrine at the University Park campus, one stands on each of Penn State’s branch campuses.
We have built a virtual shrine on the Penn State World Campus island in Second Life. If you have a Second Life account, you can visit the virtual Nittany Lion Shrine.
Learn more about getting started in
Second Life.
Reminder: Check Your Penn State E-mail!
Your Penn State e-mail account is the only account used for communicating official University business. Be sure to check it regularly or autoforward your mail to your preferred e-mail account (Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL). Visit https://www.work.psu.edu and click on “Change your e-mail forwarding address” under “Other Directory Information.” For additional help, contact wdtechsupport@outreach.psu.edu.
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