Jack The Bulldog - Early Dogs

Early Dogs

Dogs have been associated with the school's sports teams on an unofficial basis since the late nineteenth century. Early dog mascots may have included a mutt called Hoya around 1900, a Borzoi named Richmond Jack in 1906, a bulldog named Hoya in 1907, and a Boston Bull Terrier in 1911. At this time, most mascots were primarily associated with the school's football team, and were cared for by students or individual sports teams, rather than the administration.

Sergeant Stubby, a part bull terrier and a decorated World War I war dog, came to campus in 1921 with J. Robert Conroy who was attending Georgetown Law at the time. The school football team used Stubby as a popular halftime show where he would push a football across the field, which established him as a campus celebrity. After Stubby died in 1926, the team then chose a female bull terrier named Jazz Bo, who had been brought to campus by Georgetown College student Paul Van Laanen. Jazz Bo was retitled "Hoya" by the students, after the traditional "Hoya Saxa" school cheer. The athletic teams are possibly named, in turn, for this dog. When "Hoya" gave birth to a daughter, students named the puppy "Saxa".

Other bull terriers like Saxa filled in as mascot until World War II, when athletics at the school paused during the war. After the war, a series of Great Danes, named Bo, Butch, and Hobo, served as mascot. William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, was one of the students to care for Butch. During this time period mascot abductions by rival schools became a common threat to the animal's safety. A bull terrier costume was also briefly used by the school, but in 1951, the school suspended the football program as part of a larger backlash against university sports. This left the school without a mascot.