Youngstown State waddles to Pittsburgh for college football week four

In its fourth test of the year, Pitt will defend the home field as the Youngstown State Penguins bring their happy feet to town. Yes, you read that correctly — the Penguins. 

Quite unusual and one-of-one in the world of division one college mascots, Youngstown State’s out-of-the-ordinary nickname is one with a rich — and slightly confusing — history.

The birth of the abnormal moniker dates back to Jan. 30, 1933, when the YSU basketball team traveled through freezing weather conditions to play an away game at West Liberty State in West Virginia.

One rendition of the story says that while warming up for the game, the Youngstown players staved off the cold jumping around, stomping their feet and swinging their arms in theatrical ways reminiscent of — you guessed it — penguins. 

One way or another, the title made its way back to the student body, gaining popularity and ultimately sticking. The other telling of the story, which takes place on the same day, says that the name arose due to the weather conditions in which the team traveled to get to the basketball game. 

While driving through snow, fans who were discussing a potential name for a team that had no brand at the time, decided on “Penguins,” and the name endured almost a century later, as we still call YSU by the name today. 

But there is one problem with these two stories.

According to the men’s basketball record book, the team did not in fact play at West Liberty on Jan. 30, 1933 — and what’s more is that they didn’t even play any game that day. Rather, the team played West Liberty on Feb. 9 of the same year. The box score from this matchup was even published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

However, newspaper archives in the Maag Library at YSU say that the nickname started on Feb. 8, 1933 — a day before the game where the tag was supposedly born.

The name would not become official until five years later when the school added a football program. While the origin of the name itself is still a mystery, the lore behind the way a flightless bird commonly found in the southern hemisphere found its way into Youngstown, Ohio, goes even deeper.

In 1939, the school allocated $150 to purchase a live penguin who would pick up the cute and alliterative name Pete. 

While the prospects of having a live penguin on campus seemed fun, Pete’s life spanned a mere two years, as he died in 1941. Supposedly found drowned in a river, Pete was then taxidermied and placed on the president’s desk until he was stolen. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day. 

Following Pete’s mysterious passing, the school forked out another bargain $200 for two more penguins. The new Pete came along with a partner, Patricia, and the pair lived in the basement of a school hall, before flocking to the local Cleveland Zoo for the summer. In 1942, Pete died of pulmonary tuberculosis and Patricia, in Romeo and Juliet fashion, went in the same way just shortly after.

In his final hoorah, another Pete returned in 1968 for $150 from the student council. This Pete lived in a $1200 glass cage outside the library and lived a long eight years until his death in 1972. 

In 1965, Youngstown president of the 1966 class, Vic Rubenstein, dressed up in a tuxedo and penguin outfit bearing the role of the school’s mascot. 20 years down the line, the school bought their first full penguin costume and a year after, Pete was married to another penguin named Penny when cheerleaders needed a big idea to present at the homecoming game and decided Pete was better off hitched. 

To this day, Pete and Penny stay cheering on YSU, and these penguins will flap their wings especially loud this weekend in their matchup against ROC and our Pitt Panthers.