Painted Lion 5/8/22

It is Graduation Weekend and Mother's Day. Students, many with family, typically would be lined up at the Nittany Lion Shrine for photos. So why was the shrine walled off with a blue construction fence.

The reason became clear when we looked through a gap in the fence. The Lion had been vandalized. The Lion's right ear had been broken and spray painted red and other areas of the Lion and platform were also sprayed red. A power washer sat ready in the foreground.

The Lion has been vandalized a number of times in the past, for example: it was splashed with orange print by Syracuse University students before a football game in the mid-1960s, and the left ear has been broken-off (and replaced) at least twice. Security at the shrine has not stopped the attacks (e.g., flood lights, cameras). It is rumored that a decade or so ago a plaster cast was made of the lion, though it is carved Indiana limestone, to help in case repairs are needed, and more recently a digital scan completed.

For more information on the Nittany Lion Shrine see my 7/2/20 "Caged Lion" blog entry and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nittany_Lion_Shrine

Added Note: The 5/9/22 Centre Daily Times adds that, "Paint was also use to vandalize Old Main and the Hintz Family Alumni Center."