Help celebrate Pete the Penguin's 89th birthday

You’d probably never guess that one of the Valley’s most iconic personalities is 89 years old.

Pete, Youngstown State University’s penguin mascot, is celebrating his birthday and the university is asking people to join the party.

YSU is soliciting videos from fans wishing Pete a Happy Birthday. 

Pete’s pals are also being invited to share their favorite photos or memories they remember of the big bird over the years.

Submit here: https://bit.ly/32NCh0m

The only Division I University in the country with a Penguin for a mascot and the nickname Penguins for their athletic teams, before 1933, Youngstown College had been referred to as "Y" College, YoCo, Wye Collegians, and many times, simply the "Locals."

According to a post on the YSU Athletics website, there are two accounts of how the nickname came to be.

The first version is that on a freezing night on January 30, 1933, at a men's basketball game in West Liberty, W. Va., a spectator watched team members stomp on the floor and swing their arms, making them look like Penguins.

The second account has to do with the fact that the roads to that West Liberty game had been covered by as much as two feet of snow.

During the trip to the game, fans discussing a nickname for the school thought Penguins would be a good choice. Members of the team agreed.

By the end of that school year, the nickname was unanimously accepted by the student body.

The nickname Penguins was formally introduced to the school in the "Jambar" at the beginning of the 1933-34 basketball season.

Penguins became the accepted nickname both in the Jambar and on the sports pages of two local newspapers.

The name was introduced after the first game with Slippery Rock in the Dec. 15, 1933, issue of the "Jambar". The Youngstown Telegram first used the nickname in a headline on Dec. 29, 1933, while The Vindicator first acknowledged the nickname in its Jan. 27, 1934, edition.