As you might know, we here at quebecpenspinning have started a campaign to get the Nittany Lion inducted into the Hall of Fame.  However, we as fans can’t really get a look inside the head of the costume and find out what goes on behind the scenes.  Well, until now.

We reached out to the current student behind the mask, and though he asked us not to print his name, we exchanged emails.  What follows is quebecpenspinning’s  exclusive interview with The Man inside the Lion, in which we talk about his gymnastics background, how he became the first ever freshman mascot, and what the Nittany Lion does when he’s not at football or basketball games.

NWO: Did you grow up in a Penn State household?  What were your thoughts about the lion growing up, or before you became him?

The Nittany Lion: I did not grow up in a Penn State household, but growing up some of my best friends from gymnastics parents were Penn State fanatics. Also, we would come up to Penn State often with gymnastics for competitions being around these people while in Penn State definitely showed me the best side of Penn State.

TNL: I was my High School’s mascot. The newspaper did an article on me and since I was already accepted to Penn State they had asked me if I wanted to be the Nittany Lion. I had said it would be a neat goal but never really considered it. Chuck Kimble a previous Lion had seen the article and got in contact with me and got me on the path to becoming the Lion.

The tryouts included a 5 page typed application, then a round of cuts. the next step was a 20 min suit and tie interview in front of a panel of 11 people and a camera crew, followed by another round of cuts. the final stage of the application process was the physical tryout which involved getting into the suit and preforming a 2 min skit that I had to come up with my self, cut my own music, bring my own props, bring my own people who would be in the skit ect. Then immediately after the skit was over I had to run over to the judges table and one of the judges would pull a random prop out of a bag. I then had to play with it for 30 sec and make the crowd laugh. After everyone was done with those two parts everyone had to go and do 50 one-armed push-ups for the judges. they then made their decision.

TNL: It was unbelievable, I had not expected to get the position due to my age. I am the first freshman ever picked for this position and am honored to hold that title, but it was a shock because I had known they had never picked a freshman and I knew my disadvantage going into the competition.

TNL: By spring break I had pretty much taken over completely. Durring break I traveled out to Indianapolis twice and did both big ten championchips and that pretty much marked the start of my tenture. Some of the biggest events I got to do include the entire NIT tournament from Florida to Madison Square Garden, Volleyball nationals in Provo Utah, the big ten tournaments, and I got to shoot an ESPN commercial in LA California.

TNL: Not really, I was always a huge Penn State fan but other than my change of location from stands to field my love for Penn State has not really changed.

TNL: Sporting events makes up probably less than half of my events. I pretty much do anything that invlolves with Penn State, whether it be walk-a-thons or conventions held in State College, or doing a photo shoot for a Penn State web site.

TNL: Probably my favorite game in the suit so far was the University of Florida game. We were in Gainsville for the NIT basketball tournament and they have some awesome fans down there. Everytime I would run onto the court the entire crowd would “boo” except for maybe the 100 Penn State fans in the corner. So the next time I ran out, I went strait to center court and started to break dance. The entire crowd went silent… then the Penn State fans went crazy and maybe about 100 UF fans just started to clap. It was awesome being able to silence a crowd of 30,000 or so people.

On behalf of all of us here at quebecpenspinning, we want to thank The Nittany Lion, and the man inside of him, for being so accessible and for answering our questions.  He’s also been a great deal of help in the process for application to the Mascot Hall of Fame.  Even though we can’t print your name, we want to give you a major thank you for everything you’ve done.  And if you’re just a layman reading this, we thank him for giving us such an interesting look behind the scenes.