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50 free Penn State trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Penn State opened in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania on 200 acres donated by a congressman, and its teams once wore pink and black. Today it fills the second-largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere, runs the largest university creamery in the country and hosts the biggest student-run philanthropy in the world. These 50 questions cover the University Park campus and its traditions: the Nittany Lion mascot invented on a trip to Princeton, the limestone Lion Shrine, Old Main, Mount Nittany, THON and Four Diamonds, the Berkey Creamery, Happy Valley and State College. The football half covers Beaver Stadium, Rip Engle and Joe Paterno, the 1982 and 1986 titles, the White Out, Linebacker U, James Franklin and the 2026 hire of Matt Campbell, plus the wrestling, fencing and gymnastics dynasties. Every answer is cited to a page we checked. Play in sets of ten or print the list for a tailgate.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under what name was Penn State founded in 1855?
Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania
Locals thought colleges were impractical, so the words "college" and "university" were deliberately avoided. It became the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania in 1862.
Q 02Which president, brother of a sitting U.S. president, won Penn State university status in 1953?
Milton Eisenhower
Milton S. Eisenhower was Dwight D. Eisenhower's brother. The school has been The Pennsylvania State University ever since.
Q 03Which 1882 president pushed Penn State beyond agriculture and has a main road named for him?
George Atherton
The engineering program he built immediately ranked among the ten largest in the nation. Atherton Hall is named for his wife, Frances.
Q 04Penn State's College of Medicine was established in 1967 in which town?
Hershey
The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was funded by a $50 million gift from the Hershey Trust Company.
Q 05What were Penn State's original official colors before blue and white?
Black and dark pink
Students voted to switch to blue and white in 1890 after a referendum, reportedly because the pink faded in the sun.
Q 06In what year did a student referendum replace pink and black with blue and white uniforms?
1890
The plain blue and white look has been a point of pride ever since; the football helmet still carries no logo.
Q 07Joe Mason invented the Nittany Lion mascot in 1904 while visiting which university?
Princeton
Embarrassed that Penn State had no mascot, he made one up on the spot and declared it would easily beat the Princeton tiger.
Q 08The word "Nittany" comes from an Algonquian word meaning what?
Single mountain
Penn State folklore also tells of Nit-A-Nee, a Native American maiden whose actions were said to have formed Mount Nittany.
Q 09Which sculptor carved the Nittany Lion Shrine dedicated in 1942?
Heinz Warneke
Warneke and stonecutter Joseph Garatti worked from a 13-ton block of Indiana limestone. Warneke later repaired a damaged ear himself.
Q 10The Nittany Lion Shrine was a gift from the class that graduated in which year?
1940
It sits among trees near Recreation Building. The class of 2012 paid for a 2013 renovation that added lighting and a sidewalk.
Q 11Who secretly splashed orange paint on the Lion Shrine before the 1966 Syracuse game?
The coach's wife, Sue
The coach's wife and a friend used water-soluble paint. Syracuse's color is orange.
Q 12Old Main was rebuilt in what year after the 1863 original was razed?
1930
The 1863 original was declared structurally unsound in the 1920s and torn down in 1929. Its bell was a gift of the class of 1904.
Q 13Penn State's Berkey outlet, founded in 1865, is the largest university what in the U.S.?
Creamery
It uses about 4.5 million pounds of milk a year and sells roughly 750,000 hand-dipped cones.
Q 21Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, founded in 1834, is the oldest law school in which state?
Pennsylvania
It is also the fifth-oldest in the country and joined Penn State in 2000. The university's other law school is on the University Park campus.
Q 22State College and its surrounding townships are collectively known by what nickname?
Happy Valley
The name came from the area's economic resilience during the Great Depression, and it stayed resistant to the 2008 recession too.
Q 23State College, home of University Park, is the state's largest what?
Borough
Its 2020 census population was 40,501. It separated from College Township in 1896 and adopted a home-rule charter in 1976.
Q 14Which famous ice cream duo took a Penn State correspondence course in 1978?
Ben and Jerry
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield studied Agriculture 5150, which teaches manufacturers the basics of ice cream production.
Q 15THON, Penn State's dance marathon, is described as the world's largest what?
Student-run philanthropy
It began in 1973 with 78 participants and now raises millions each February for childhood cancer care.
Q 16THON's sole beneficiary is which childhood cancer organization?
Four Diamonds
In 2025 the event raised a program record of $17.7 million for Four Diamonds.
Q 17When THON moved to the Bryce Jordan Center in 2007, it was shortened from 48 hours to how many?
46
The two hours were trimmed to avoid conflicts with basketball games. State College renames itself "City of THON" for those 46 hours each year.
Q 18What is the name of Penn State's student-run newspaper, founded in 1904?
The Daily Collegian
Commonwealth campuses receive a weekly edition called The Weekly Collegian. Onward State is a separate student blog.
Q 19Since 1995 the Penn State Alumni Association has held which world record?
Largest dues-paying membership
Membership totaled 176,426 as of 2016.
Q 20Penn State World Campus, the university's online arm, launched in what year?
1998
It offers more than 60 online programs, and its students got their own student government, the WCSGA, in 2019.
Q 24Before its 2025 renovation, Beaver Stadium's seating capacity was closest to which figure?
106,572
That made it the second-largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Michigan Stadium, and fourth-largest in the world.
Q 25Beaver Stadium is named after James A. Beaver, who held which office from 1887 to 1891?
Governor of Pennsylvania
Beaver was also president of the university's board of trustees and a native of nearby Millerstown.
Q 26In the 1959-60 offseason, the 30,000-seat stadium was dismantled and moved how far across campus?
Half a mile
New Beaver Field's steel grandstands were re-erected at the east end of campus; you can still see the color change where later stone additions begin.
Q 27Since 2025, Beaver Stadium's official name carries which naming-rights sponsor?
West Shore Home
The full name is West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium.
Q 28Penn State football joined the Big Ten Conference for play in which season?
1993
The Nittany Lions had been an independent from 1892 to 1992. They won their first Big Ten title the very next year, 1994.
Q 29Penn State's two consensus football national championships came in 1982 and which other year?
1986
Both came under Joe Paterno. The 1994 team went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl but was not voted champion.
Q 30Penn State plays Michigan State each year for which trophy?
Land Grant
The series began with Penn State's Big Ten arrival in 1993; both schools were their states' original land-grant colleges.