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.
Uga (mascot)
The Uga mascot line first started in 1956 when Seiler brought a bulldog that was given to him as a wedding present by Frank Heard to Georgia's first home game of the season. Afterwards, head coach Wally Butts asked his permission to use the dog as Georgia's mascot, and around the same time a college friend, Billy Young, suggested that he name it Uga, a play on the common abbreviation of the University of Georgia, UGA. Since then, every Uga has been owned by and lived with the Seiler family in Savannah, Georgia. Even to this day, Uga is owned by the Seiler family, who take care of him when he isn't acting as the mascot on the field. They also transport him to and from the events he attends as mascot.