Georgetown Hoyas
The University admits that the precise origin of the term "Hoya" is unknown. At some point before 1893, and likely before 1891, students versed in classical languages combined the Greek "hoia" or "hoya", meaning "what" or "such", and the Latin "saxa" to form "Hoya Saxa!", or "What Rocks!" This cheer may either refer to the stalwart defense of the football team, or to the baseball team, which was nicknamed the "Stonewalls", or to the actual stone wall that surrounds the campus. Father William McFadden, S.J., campus Jesuit and the team's in-house announcer at the Capital One Arena, has disputed the Greek and Latin origin, suggesting the classical words were retroactively applied to a nonsensical cheer.
After World War I, the term "Hoya" was increasingly used on campus, including for the newspaper and the school mascot. In 1920, students began publishing the campus's first sports newspaper under the name "The Hoya", after successfully petitioning the Dean of the College to use it instead of the proposed name, "The Hilltopper". "Hilltoppers" was also a name sometimes used for the sports teams. By the fall of 1928, the newspaper had taken to referring to the sports teams as the Hoyas. This was influenced by a popular half time show at football games, where the mascot, a dog nicknamed "Hoya," would entertain fans.
2010–11 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Georgetown had fallen to No. 11 in the AP Poll when its season-ending losing streak began at the Verizon Center with an upset loss to Cincinnati, breaking the Bearcats′ 20-game losing streak on the road to ranked teams that dated back to January 14, 2004. Although Austin Freeman scored 19 points, the Hoyas shot 25 percent from the field as a team, their worst shooting performance since at least the 1996-97 season. Bigger than the loss of the game was the loss of Chris Wright, who left the game with a broken hand with 15:53 left to play. Wright was unable to play – breaking his 93-game collegiate starting streak – when Georgetown hosted No. 17 Syracuse in a rematch with former President Bill Clinton, former Georgetown and National Basketball Association star Alonzo Mourning, and Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis looking on. Syracuse was ahead for almost the entire first half, finishing with a 9-2 run that gave the Orange a 33-23 lead at halftime. Georgetown battled back in the second half to take a 45-43 lead with 10:00 left to play, but from there Syracuse outscored the Hoyas 15-6 for a 58-51 upset win. Austin Freeman had 16 points and Jason Clark scored 11. With Wright – who had undergone surgery on his hand – still out and the Hoyas falling to No. 17 in the AP Poll, the season ended with a loss at Cincinnati, in which Freeman alone provided most of Georgetown's offense, playing 37 minutes and scoring 21 points. Both teams were shooting only 33 percent from the floor with 10 minutes left to play, and Georgetown, although leading the Big East with a team field goal percentage of 48.5, shot only 32 percent from the field against Cincinnati. Hollis Thompson had 12 points.