ESPN Mag: The Lion

This week’s ESPN The Magazine had a story on the Nittany Lion (I think you need Insider). It was about mascots in general, but the focus was on The Lion. This was the lead picture for the story.

Fun fact about the orgin of mascots:

In the late 1800s, composer Edmond Audran wrote a popular operetta called La Mascotte about a virgin farm girl who brought good luck as long as she, ahem, remained a virgin. Translated into The Mascot when it arrived in the States, in 1882, “it established the idea of a mascot as a person or animal bringing good luck,” says Roy Yarbrough, director of sport management studies at California University of Pennsylvania.