Penn State’s longtime mascot is a common mountain lion, the kind that roamed the mountains near the school’s State College campus until the late 19th century. One of the Nittany Lions’ historic rivals, the Pitt Panthers, has a similar taxonomic nickname for a similar reason.

For the tens of thousands crammed inside Hard Rock Stadium and the millions of television viewers across the country, cries of “We Are … Penn State” from the Nittany Lions f