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.
2007–08 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team
The Hoyas finished 2007 and their nonconference schedule with wins over American – the first meeting between the crosstown rivals since December 1986 – and Fordham. American held a luncheon before its game with Georgetown, now ranked No. 8, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Eagles′ December 15, 1982, upset win over the then-No. 5 1982-83 Hoyas in December 1982 – touted as the biggest win in American's basketball history – but Georgetown dominated the Eagles this time around and won 78-51, with DaJuan Summers scoring 16 points, Chris Wright 13, and Hibbert 14, although Hibbert tied his career-low total of one rebound, the first time he had only one rebound since a game against South Florida in January 2006. The game against Fordham on New Year's Eve was the first meeting of the teams since January 1979, and the Hoyas, who had climbed to No. 7 in the Associated Press Poll that day, routed the Rams with Jonathan Wallace scoring a team-high 19 points, DaJuan Summers scoring 15 and grabbing nine rebounds, Austin Freeman contributing 12 points, and Jessie Sapp and Roy Hibbert adding 11 each. During the Fordham game, Wallace reached two career benchmarks, becoming the 39th Hoya to score 1,000 points in his career and scoring his 190th three-point shot, moving ahead of Kevin Braswell′s team record of 189 three-pointers set between 1988 and 1992.