Georgetown Hoyas
Baseball is Georgetown's oldest sport, with the first recorded game taking place in 1866, and the team formally organized and sanctioned in 1870. The Hoyas have seen little national success, with no appearances in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship since the event was established in 1947. The team was once known as the Stonewalls, and is one possible source of the Hoya Saxa cheer famous among all Georgetown sports teams. The Hoyas play their home games at Shirley Povich Field, a 1,500 seat stadium located in Bethesda, Maryland and named for "Washington Post" sports columnist Shirley Povich. The stadium was built in 2000. The Hoyas also utilize three lighted batting cages and two bullpen areas located on campus above Yates Field House, and adjacent to Kehoe Field.
1979–80 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
On February 13, 1980, Georgetown visited No.3-ranked Syracuse for the last game Syracuse was to play at Manley Field House before moving into the new Carrier Dome for its home games. The odds-on favorite with a 57-game home winning streak at Manley, Syracuse expected to virtually clinch the first Big East regular-season championship by closing Manley with one final victory, and held a 14-point lead over the Hoyas at halftime. Shelton scored 17 points and, late in the game, the Hoyas went on a 15-5 run to tie the score at 50. With five seconds left, Syracuse fouled Sleepy Floyd, and Floyd, who uncharacteristically scored only eight points in the game, sank both his free throws to give Georgetown a 52-50 upset win. In his post-game press conference, John Thompson exulted, "Manley Field House is officially closed." That quote, combined with Georgetown's upset victory on an historic evening in Syracuse basketball, is credited as the beginning of the great Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry that would be one of the defining features of the original Big East Conference for the rest of its 34-year existence.