Georgetown University - Athletics

Athletics

Georgetown fields 23 varsity teams and the Club Sports Board supports an additional 23 club teams. The varsity teams participate in the NCAA's Division I. The school generally competes in the Big East Conference, although the football team competes in the Division I FCS Patriot League, the sailing team in Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association, and the rowing teams in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges. U.S. News & World Report listed Georgetown's athletics program among the 20 best in the nation. Georgetown's student athletes have a 94% graduation success rate, and over one-hundred have gone on to play professionally.

The school's teams are called "Hoyas", a name whose origin is uncertain. Sometime before 1893, students well versed in classical languages invented the mixed Greek and Latin chant of "Hoya Saxa", translating roughly as "what (or such) rocks". The school's baseball team, then called the Stonewalls, began in 1870, and football in 1874, and the chant likely refers to one of these teams. By the 1920s, the term "Hoyas" was used to describe groups on campus, and by 1928, campus sports writers started using it instead of the older team name, the "Hilltoppers". The name was picked up in the local publications, and became official shortly after. Jack the Bulldog has been the mascot of Georgetown athletics programs since 1962, and the school fight song is There Goes Old Georgetown.

The men's basketball team is particularly noteworthy as it won the NCAA championship in 1984 under coach John Thompson. The current coach is his son, John Thompson III, who coached the team to the Final Four in the 2007 NCAA tournament. The team is tied for the most Big East conference tournament titles with seven, and has made twenty-seven NCAA tournament appearances. Well-known team alumni include Sleepy Floyd, Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Jeff Green, and Roy Hibbert. Georgetown's NBA alumni are collectively among the highest earners from a single program.

Besides basketball, Georgetown has been nationally successful in both cross country and track and field, and in 2011, the women's cross country team won Georgetown's only other NCAA Championship. The sailing teams have also won eight Intercollegiate Sailing Association national championships since 2001, while the rowing teams are perennial contenders. The men's and women's lacrosse teams have both been ranked in the top ten nationally. The rugby club team also made it to the Division II Final Four in 2005 and 2009.