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.
2015–16 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
Winners of five of their last six games and with an overall record of 11–6 and a conference record of 4–1, the Hoyas returned to Washington to host No. 6 Villanova, winners of 20 straight Big East games since an upset loss to Georgetown at the Verizon Center on January 19, 2015, and Georgetown′s third Top Ten opponent of the season. Before the game, Georgetown held a moment of silence for former Butler center Andrew Smith, who had died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia four days earlier at the age of 26. Villanova led 26–22 at halftime. At one point in the second half, the Wildcats went without a field goal for 5:39, and they only scored one field goal during the final eight minutes of the game. but the Hoyas got in foul trouble and the Wildcats played tough inside defense and made nine of their last 10 free throws. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 15 points in the game, Isaac Copeland added 11, and Reggie Cameron put in 10, but the Hoyas made a number of ball-handling mistakes and shot only 32.7 percent from the field for the game, and Villanova won 55–50.