UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Beloved by Penn Staters, the Nittany Lion shrine is familiar to everyone who visits the University Park campus. But did you know that each Penn State campus has its own replica of this iconic feline?
A gift of the class of 1940, the original limestone Nittany Lion was completed by noted German sculptor Heinrich "Heinz" Warneke in 1942.
In 1968, Warneke approved ten one-quarter-scale “cubs” to be made and these were prominently placed at Mont Alto, Hazleton, Schuylkill, DuBois, Altoona, Wilkes-Barre, McKeesport, York, Ogontz and Erie.
Eventually all the University’s campuses received their own “mini-Lion.” Since then, several campuses have replaced their smaller statues with larger, three-quarter-scale models.