Georgetown Hoyas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Georgetown University
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| Institution | Georgetown University |
|---|---|
| Colors | Blue and Gray |
| Mascot | Jack the Bulldog |
| Athletic Director | Bernard Muir |
| Varsity sports | 22 (10 men's, 11 women's, 1 coed) |
| Conferences | Big East Conference, Patriot League (football only) |
| Football, Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium | Multi-Sport Field |
| Basketball Arenas | McDonough Gymnasium & Verizon Center |
The Georgetown Hoyas are the athletics teams that officially represent Georgetown University in college sports. Hoyas (the name means "what" or "such") participate in the NCAA's Division I Big East Conference in 26 sports and the Division I-AA Patriot League in football. The men's basketball team is the school's most famous and most successful program, but Hoyas have achieved some degree of success in a wide range of sports.
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[edit] Cultural traditions
[edit] "What is a Hoya"
The University admits that the precise origin of the term "Hoya" is unknown.[1] The official story is that at some point before 1920, students well-versed in the classical languages invented the Greek hoia or hoya, meaning "what" or "such", and the Latin saxa, to form "What Rocks!" Depending on who tells the story, the "rocks" either refer to the baseball team, which was nicknamed the "Stonewalls" after the Civil War, to the stalwart defense of the football team, or to the stone wall that surrounded the campus.[2]
In 1920, students began publishing the campus's first regular newspaper under the name The Hoya, after successfully petitioning Rev. Coleman Nevils, S.J., Dean of the College, to change the name of the young paper, which was originally to be known as The Hilltopper. By the fall of 1928, the newspaper had taken to referring to the sports teams (then called the Hilltoppers in reference to Georgetown's geography) as the Hoyas. Dean Nevils's former school, College of the Holy Cross, also refers to the term "Hoya" in one of its fight songs, as does a third Jesuit school, Marquette University.
Big East and other opponents, whose schools tend to have more concrete nicknames, have long used "What's a Hoya?" as a chant to mock Georgetown.[3]
[edit] Mascot
Georgetown's nickname is The Hoyas, but its mascot is "Jack the Bulldog." Among the earliest mascots was a terrier named Stubby, whose name is largely unfamiliar today but was perhaps the most famous dog of his generation. Stubby was discovered by a soldier at the Yale Bowl, and went on to fight in the trenches of World War I in France. He was "promoted" to Sergeant for his actions in combat and awarded a special medal by General John J. Pershing in a post-war ceremony. His owner then entered Georgetown Law School, and Stubby became part of the halftime show.[4]
From then on, Georgetown had a live dog as its mascot (most famously Rev. Vincent McDonough, SJ's dog, Hoya) until 1951, when the school joined a growing movement among private schools (most notably the University of Chicago) to suspend football programs as un-academic. The dog as a symbol lived on, though, and sporadically students would bring pet bulldogs to games. In 1962 the school adopted as its logo a drawing of an English Bulldog named "Jack", sporting a blue and gray cap. In 1979, the university began the tradition of dressing up a student in a blue and gray bulldog. It has been said that Georgetown copied the University of Georgia's mascot.[5]
Finally, in 1999, Rev. Scott Pilarz, S.J. revived the tradition of a live bulldog; when he left for the University of Scranton, Georgetown immediately secured a new bulldog puppy and found another Jesuit, Rev. Christopher Steck, S.J., to care for him.[6]
[edit] Fight song
Georgetown's fight song is rare among U.S. university fight songs (St. Olaf College and Texas A&M presently, and Wisconsin in the past, being other prominent examples) for mentioning other colleges by name. Specifically, it mentions Yale University, Harvard University, Princeton University, College of the Holy Cross, the United States Naval Academy, and Cornell University, who were all rivals of Georgetown in the early-to-mid 20th century, and mocks their fight songs. In recent years the Hoyas only play Cornell and Holy Cross regularly (in football), and many of these schools no longer use the fight songs that Georgetown's song mocks.
[edit] Men's basketball
[edit] Rowing
[edit] Georgetown Crew History
Rowing at Georgetown has a distinguished history. Indeed, Georgetown's current University Colors have their origin in the founding of the university's Boat Club in 1876, which deemed Blue and Gray "appropriate colors for the [Boat] Club and expressive of the feeling of unity between the Northern and Southern boys of the College." The colors were enshrined on a blue and gray banner, emblazoned with the Latin "Ocior Euro," or "Swifter Than the Wind," which the girls of Georgetown Visitation School presented to the Boat Club. From the start Georgetown's rowing team raced against the likes of Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Cornell and Wisconsin.
[edit] Georgetown Crew Today
Today, under the guidance of the legendary Tony Johnson, now Director of Rowing and Varsity Heavyweight Coach, Georgetown still competes as a member of the top league in American rowing, the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges. With the addition of a men's lightweight team in 1963, a women's team in 1975, and a women's lightweight team in 1996, Georgetown's four crew teams have seen great success in recent years, including trips to the Henley Royal Regatta for the men's heavyweight and lightweight teams and second-in-the-nation finishes for both men's [7] and women's [8] lightweight teams. Many Georgetown oarsmen and -women have gone on to represent the United States on national and Olympic teams,[9] and a new boathouse is scheduled to be completed in the near future.[10]
[edit] Men's Rugby
[edit] Women's lacrosse
The women's lacrosse team has been particularly strong in recent years, winning 6 consecutive Big East titles. The Lady Hoyas reached the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship final in both 2001 and 2002. They play their home games on Multi-Sport Facility ("Harbin Field"), which is surrounded on two sides by dormitories, to respectably large crowds. In 2005, their first season under new coach Ricky Fried, the team went 13-5 and made the NCAA Tournament for the 8th straight year.[11] With one game left in the 2006 regular season, the Hoyas are 12-3, ranking #3 in the nation.[12]
[edit] Football
In the 1940s, Georgetown had one of the better college football teams in America. As the college game became more expensive, however, Georgetown refused to make the expensive investments that other Catholic universities like Notre Dame made to maintain a top-notch program.
In 1941, Georgetown played in the Orange Bowl, where they lost 14-7 to Mississippi State. They also played in the 1950 Sun Bowl against Texas Western. Texas Western, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso (more commonly UTEP), won the game by a score of 33-20.
After a 2-7 season in 1950 which included losses to the likes of Penn State, Miami, and Maryland, Georgetown discontinued the sport, which was revived in 1964 by students. Its first game drew 8,000 to campus against New York University (NYU). Today's Georgetown team plays at the Division I-AA level, competing against Ivy League and Patriot League schools.
"Big Jim" Ricca, an NFL defensive end and offensive lineman, graduated in 1949 and was the last Hoya to play in the NFL.[13]
Perhaps the football team's most accomplished athlete was Al Blozis, who would play for the NFL's New York Giants before being killed in action in World War II. Blozis's great athletic accomplishments, however, came in shotput and discus. He set the world indoor record for the shotput, throwing it 56 feet 4.5 inches in 1941. He was the national indoor and outdoor shotput champion in both 1942 and 1943.[14]
[edit] Other sports
Hoyas have excelled in a wide range of sports over the years:
- Five players from the men's soccer team have played professionally for Major League Soccer: Phil Wellington (drafted in 1996), Brandon Leib (1997), and Eric Kvello (1999), Dan Gargan 2004 (Selected 43rd overall in the 2005 MLS Supplemental Draft), Jeff Curtin 2005 (1st round draft Pick #14 overall). Ricky Schramm, who played on the 2006 Hoyas, was drafted in the 37th round by DC United.
- The sailing team finished 2005 ranked #1 [15] in the ICSA Sailing World College Rankings. As of May 2006, they are now #4. Andrew Campbell has led the sailing team to the three singlehanded national championships[16] and a second place finish in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Associaion (ICSA) championships in Hood River, Oregon. He was named male sailing athlete of the year in 2002 and 2005.[17]
[edit] Administration
[edit] Athletic directors
Since July 1, 2005, the Director of the Athletic Department has been Bernard Muir. The former directors since the title's creation in 1914 are Charles R. Cox (1914-1920), Rev. Vincent S. McDonough (1920-1924), Louis Little (1924-1930), H. Gabriel Murphy (1930-1941), Rome F. Schwagel (1941-1942, 1947-1949), Joseph T. Gardner (1942-1943), Rev. John J. Kehoe (1943-1944), John L. Hagerty (1946-1947, 1949-1969), Robert H. Sigholtz (1969-1972), Francis X. Rienzo (1972-1999), Joseph C. Lang (1999-2004), and Adam Brick (2004-2005). [18]
[edit] List of sports
Intercollegiate sports include (inaugural season and current coach in parentheses)[19]
- Men's: baseball (1860, Pete Wilk), basketball (1907, John Thompson III), crew (1876, Tony Johnson), cross country (1924, Ron Helmer), football (1887, Kevin Kelly), golf (1925, Tommy Hunter), lacrosse (1951, Dave Urick), soccer (1952), swimming and diving (1949, Bethany Bower), tennis (1920), and track and field (1891, Ron Helmer)
- Women's: basketball (1960, Terri Williams Fluornoy), crew (1975, Tony Johnson), cross country (1976, Ron Helmer), field hockey (1960, Laurie Carroll), golf (2001, Connie Isler), lacrosse (1975, Ricky Fried), soccer (1991, Dave Nolan), softball (2005, Pat Conlan), swimming and diving (1975, Bethany Bower), tennis (1960), track and field (1976, Ron Helmer), and volleyball (1960, Arlisa Hagan)
- Coed: sailing (1937, Mike Callahan)
[edit] References
- ^ Georgetown University, "What is a Hoya?"
- ^ Hoya Saxa, "What is a Hoya?"
- ^ The Heights, "Crowd shows up for winning streak"
- ^ Smithsonian Institution, "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War -- Stubby"
- ^ Hoya Saxa Online, "Georgetown Traditions: Jack The Bulldog"
- ^ Hoya Saxa Online, "Georgetown Traditions: Jack The Bulldog"
- ^ "Men's Crew Places Second at Lightweight National Championship" GUHoyas.com
- ^ " Georgetown Women's Lightweight Crew Completes Best Season in Program History" GUHoyas.com
- ^ "Groom Wins Olympic Rowing Trials" GUHoyas.com
- ^ "Build the Boathouse"
- ^ Hoya Saxa Magazine, January 2006 issue
- ^ "No. 3 Georgetown Women's Lacrosse Outlasts Loyola in Amazing OT Nailbiter", Georgetown University Women's Lacrosse, April 29, 2006
- ^ "Glory Days: The Past, Present and Future of Hoyas Turned Professional Athletes The Hoya, January 23, 2004
- ^ "Glory Days: The Past, Present and Future of Hoyas Turned Professional Athletes The Hoya, January 23, 2004
- ^ Georgetown University Sailing [1], Dec 2 2005
- ^ Georgetown University Sailing [2], Nov 2 2005
- ^ Georgetown University Sailing [3] Jan 4 2006
- ^ Hoya Saxa Magazine, January 2006 issue
- ^ Hoya Saxa Magazine, January 2006 issue
[edit] External links
- Big East Official Georgetown Page
- Georgetown University Official Athletic Site
- Georgetown Rowing Association
- Georgetown University Boathouse
- HoyaSaxa.com Basketball
- HoyaSaxa.com Football
- Georgetown section in the Washington Post website
| Big East Conference |
|---|
| Football: Cincinnati • Connecticut • Louisville • Pittsburgh • Rutgers • South Florida • Syracuse • West Virginia Non-football: DePaul • Georgetown • Marquette • Notre Dame • Providence • St. John's • Seton Hall • Villanova |
| Patriot League |
|---|
| Bucknell • Colgate • Holy Cross • Lafayette • Lehigh Non-football members: American • Army • Navy Football-only members: Fordham • Georgetown Women's Lacrosse-only member: Villanova |
