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.
Hoya Saxa
By the 1920s, the term "hoya" began to be used as an adjective to describe students and their associations on campus, starting with the student-run sports newspaper "The Hoya" in 1920, and the school mascot in 1926. By 1929, the term "Hoyas" was applied to the athletics teams themselves by publications like "The Washington Post". University president William Coleman Nevils (1928–1935) encouraged this, and he was known to have suggested the name "Hoiah" be used at his previous school, College of the Holy Cross, for their student newspaper. Since the early 1990s, the phrase has been painted in large letters on an abandoned trolley trestle by the university's Canal Road entrance. The sign is an occasional target of vandalism because of its association with school spirit. Word plays and rhymes using the phrase are common, including "Hoya Snaxa", the student-run snack shop. The school also hosts a "Hoya Saxa Weekend" each spring to highlight the school's diversity to new minority applicants.