Penn State's Nittany Lion Among Nation's Creepiest Mascots: Poll

Pittsburgh PA

25 August, 2021

2:17 PM

Description

STATE COLLEGE, PA — Penn State barely cracked the top 20 in the initial 2021 AP Top 25 NCAA football rankings. Now, to add insult to injury, the university's Nittany Lion has been ranked high on a list of the nation's creepiest collegiate mascots. A Quality Logo Products poll of 1,266 people rated the 128 mascots of all NCAA Division 1 football teams. Of those 128, the Nittany Lion ranked as the sixth-creepiest. Purdue University's Purdue Pete was the creepy champion, followed by the University of Louisiana-Layfette's Cayenne (a pepper, of course); Oklahoma State University's Pistol Pete; the Stanford University Tree and Wake Forest University's Demon Deacon. Rounding out the top 10 after the Nittany Lion were Arizona State University's Sparky the Sun Devil; Tony the Landshark of the University of Mississippi; the University of Las Vegas-Nevada's Hey Reb (who bears a passing resemblance to Yosemite Sam) and Texas State University's Boko the Bobcat. "What makes a mascot creepy?" Quality Logo asked on its website containing the poll results. " Is it a blank stare, intimidating facial expression, or disproportionately large head? If you take a look at the creepiest mascots in America, you'll see that the answer is a resounding yes." According to Penn State's website, the Nittany Lion was the created in 1904 by Harrison D. "Joe" Mason (class of 1907) for a baseball game against Princeton that Penn State ended up winning. Over the next few years, the lion grew so much in popularity among students, alumni and fans that no official vote was needed to designate it the mascot. Resentment regarding Penn State's prolonged success on the football field should not have played a part in the Nittany Lion finishing so high in the creepy rankings. Poll respondents were told to set aside any personal feelings about the teams represented and focus solely on the mascots. The 128 mascots were divided among 16 survey questions, each with eight randomized variations. Every respondent evaluated at least 16 mascots and each mascot was scored at least 150 times. Be the first to know what's happening in your community and region. With a free Patch subscription, you'll always be up to date on local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe.