50 Fun Facts About Penn State

Under what name was Penn State founded in 1855?

Locals thought colleges were impractical, so the words "college" and "university" were deliberately avoided. It became the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania in 1862.

Which president, brother of a sitting U.S. president, won Penn State university status in 1953?

Milton S. Eisenhower was Dwight D. Eisenhower's brother. The school has been The Pennsylvania State University ever since.

Which 1882 president pushed Penn State beyond agriculture and has a main road named for him?

The engineering program he built immediately ranked among the ten largest in the nation. Atherton Hall is named for his wife, Frances.

Penn State's College of Medicine was established in 1967 in which town?

The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was funded by a $50 million gift from the Hershey Trust Company.

What were Penn State's original official colors before blue and white?

Students voted to switch to blue and white in 1890 after a referendum, reportedly because the pink faded in the sun.

In what year did a student referendum replace pink and black with blue and white uniforms?

The plain blue and white look has been a point of pride ever since; the football helmet still carries no logo.

Joe Mason invented the Nittany Lion mascot in 1904 while visiting which university?

Embarrassed that Penn State had no mascot, he made one up on the spot and declared it would easily beat the Princeton tiger.

The word "Nittany" comes from an Algonquian word meaning what?

Penn State folklore also tells of Nit-A-Nee, a Native American maiden whose actions were said to have formed Mount Nittany.

Which sculptor carved the Nittany Lion Shrine dedicated in 1942?

Warneke and stonecutter Joseph Garatti worked from a 13-ton block of Indiana limestone. Warneke later repaired a damaged ear himself.

The Nittany Lion Shrine was a gift from the class that graduated in which year?

It sits among trees near Recreation Building. The class of 2012 paid for a 2013 renovation that added lighting and a sidewalk.

Who secretly splashed orange paint on the Lion Shrine before the 1966 Syracuse game?

The coach's wife and a friend used water-soluble paint. Syracuse's color is orange.

Old Main was rebuilt in what year after the 1863 original was razed?

The 1863 original was declared structurally unsound in the 1920s and torn down in 1929. Its bell was a gift of the class of 1904.

Penn State's Berkey outlet, founded in 1865, is the largest university what in the U.S.?

It uses about 4.5 million pounds of milk a year and sells roughly 750,000 hand-dipped cones.

Which famous ice cream duo took a Penn State correspondence course in 1978?

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield studied Agriculture 5150, which teaches manufacturers the basics of ice cream production.

THON, Penn State's dance marathon, is described as the world's largest what?

It began in 1973 with 78 participants and now raises millions each February for childhood cancer care.

THON's sole beneficiary is which childhood cancer organization?

In 2025 the event raised a program record of $17.7 million for Four Diamonds.

When THON moved to the Bryce Jordan Center in 2007, it was shortened from 48 hours to how many?

The two hours were trimmed to avoid conflicts with basketball games. State College renames itself "City of THON" for those 46 hours each year.

What is the name of Penn State's student-run newspaper, founded in 1904?

Commonwealth campuses receive a weekly edition called The Weekly Collegian. Onward State is a separate student blog.

Since 1995 the Penn State Alumni Association has held which world record?

Membership totaled 176,426 as of 2016.

Penn State World Campus, the university's online arm, launched in what year?

It offers more than 60 online programs, and its students got their own student government, the WCSGA, in 2019.

Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, founded in 1834, is the oldest law school in which state?

It is also the fifth-oldest in the country and joined Penn State in 2000. The university's other law school is on the University Park campus.

State College and its surrounding townships are collectively known by what nickname?

The name came from the area's economic resilience during the Great Depression, and it stayed resistant to the 2008 recession too.

State College, home of University Park, is the state's largest what?

Its 2020 census population was 40,501. It separated from College Township in 1896 and adopted a home-rule charter in 1976.

Before its 2025 renovation, Beaver Stadium's seating capacity was closest to which figure?

That made it the second-largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Michigan Stadium, and fourth-largest in the world.

Beaver Stadium is named after James A. Beaver, who held which office from 1887 to 1891?

Beaver was also president of the university's board of trustees and a native of nearby Millerstown.

In the 1959-60 offseason, the 30,000-seat stadium was dismantled and moved how far across campus?

New Beaver Field's steel grandstands were re-erected at the east end of campus; you can still see the color change where later stone additions begin.

Since 2025, Beaver Stadium's official name carries which naming-rights sponsor?

The full name is West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State football joined the Big Ten Conference for play in which season?

The Nittany Lions had been an independent from 1892 to 1992. They won their first Big Ten title the very next year, 1994.

Penn State's two consensus football national championships came in 1982 and which other year?

Both came under Joe Paterno. The 1994 team went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl but was not voted champion.

Penn State plays Michigan State each year for which trophy?

The series began with Penn State's Big Ten arrival in 1993; both schools were their states' original land-grant colleges.

The Beaver Stadium White Out tradition traces back to a 2004 student-section white out against whom?

It has since spread to the Bryce Jordan Center and other venues. ESPN's Beano Cook compared doubting it to doubting the moon landing.

The home-game student camp-out, renamed Nittanyville in 2012, was first called what?

The name changed after the 2011 scandal. Students line up for the best student-section seats all week.

Penn State football's nickname for producing great defenders at one position is what?

Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, LaVar Arrington and Micah Parsons are among the alumni at the position; Parsons went 11th overall in 2021.

In what year did Penn State first put player names on its football jerseys?

The names honored players who stayed through the scandal; a blue ribbon for abuse victims was added the same season.

Joe Paterno played college football at which Ivy League school?

He played quarterback and cornerback for Rip Engle, then followed Engle to Penn State as an assistant in 1950.

Joe Paterno was born in which part of New York City?

He kept a marked Brooklyn accent his whole life and graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory School in 1944.

Paterno succeeded which retiring head coach in 1966?

Engle had come from Brown in 1950 and retired after the 1965 season; Penn State named Paterno his successor the next day.

With how many victories is Paterno the winningest coach in NCAA FBS history?

The NCAA vacated 111 of them in 2012 and restored them all in a 2015 settlement. Win 409 came on October 29, 2011.

Whose record for most years as head coach at one Division I school did Paterno pass in 2009?

2009 was his 44th season in charge; his abbreviated 2011 season was his 62nd on the Penn State staff in any role.

How many times was Beaver Stadium expanded during Paterno's tenure as head coach?

It grew from 46,284 seats in 1966 to 106,572 by 2001. The south upper deck blocked the view of Mount Nittany, to some fans' dismay.

On what date in 2012 did Penn State remove the Joe Paterno statue from outside Beaver Stadium?

It came after the Freeh report and days of mixed messages; the Paterno Library kept its name.

The NCAA's 2012 sanctions fined Penn State how much?

The package also stripped 40 scholarships and banned postseason play until 2016; the NCAA later rescinded the remaining penalties.

James Franklin was hired as Penn State's 16th head coach in 2014 from which school?

He finished with a 104–45 record and was fired during the 2025 season after a loss to Northwestern.

Which coach did Penn State hire from Iowa State in December 2025?

Terry Smith had finished the 2025 regular season 6-6 as interim coach. Bill O'Brien was the 15th head coach before Franklin.

Penn State's 11-2 2022 season ended with a Rose Bowl win over which Pac-12 champion?

Two years later the 2024 team reached the College Football Playoff semifinal, losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

Which coach, 159–0 as a college wrestler, took over Penn State wrestling in 2009?

He arrived from Iowa State and won his first team title at Penn State in 2011; through 2025 the program claimed 15 team national championships.

Penn State has won 13 NCAA national titles in which combined men's and women's sport?

The NCAA began awarding combined fencing titles in 1990, and Penn State's women had already won an NCAA crown in 1983.

Which Penn State team is the only one not called the Nittany Lions?

The Lady Lions reached the Final Four in 2000 and have more NCAA tournament appearances than any other Big Ten program.

Penn State's varsity ice hockey teams have played in which building since 2012-13?

Men's hockey competed as an independent that first season before joining the Big Ten's inaugural hockey season in 2013-14.

By 2025, how many Olympic medals had Penn State students, alumni, faculty and coaches won?

Twenty of them were gold. By then the school also counted 82 national collegiate team championships, 54 of them NCAA titles.