The Nittany Pebble Lion: A Rocky Pal, Plagued by Scandals and Colors

Sit right in the heart of Penn State, the Nittany Lion Shrine - a hefty 13-ton Indiana limestone champion sculpted by Heinz Warneke and Joseph Garatti in 1942 – proves to be quite the stone companion. This guy's seen some rough days, from sleazy paint splashes to rampant vandalism, and even a broken ear, fixed and re-broken again. Considered a gift from the Class of '40, you could say this statue's chillin' in a natural setting near the Recreation Building.

You know the type, the buddy who crashes your neighbor's parties and forgets the night before. In 1966, Sue Paterno, wife of football coach Joe Paterno, got in on the action, giving the statue a splash of water-soluble orange paint. Hangover-level humor, eh? The statue was fixed again in 1966, only to be defaced once more in 1997. In 2013, the statue received a touch-up with better lighting and a snazzy sidewalk. What tickles me is that almost every campus of the Pennsylvania State University now boasts their very own Nittany Lion Shrine!

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons