Jack The Bulldog - Royal Jacket

Royal Jacket

In 1962, with the resumption of a football team, students Stan Samorajczyk and John Feldmann, editors of The Hoya campus newspaper, founded a committee to raise money for the purchase of a new mascot dog in time for the first new games in 1964. This committee chose a purebred English Bulldog as the dog which would represent Georgetown students because of their "tenacity." Samorajczyk also followed the sports team jerseys, which may have previously had an image of a bulldog on them. Around this time the school also adopted as the official logo of the athletics program a new drawing in blue and gray school colors of the bulldog. This logo dog wears a cap typical of the beanie which other freshman at the time had to wear.

For $150 the committee bought a two-year-old blue-ribbon-champion show dog named "Lil-Nan's Royal Jacket," named because the colors of his coat looked like a jacket. This dog was to be renamed "Hoya" like his 1926 predecessor, but refused to respond to any name other than his call name "Jack." Jack lived outside New South Hall in a heated doghouse. In 1967, Royal Jacket retired and was replaced by a second bulldog who continued under the simple name "Jack." In 1977, as the basketball program gained popularity, the costumed mascot took over duties as Jack. The costume, first worn by student Pat Sheehan, has been updated numerous times, most recently in 2008. Other live bulldogs owned by students at times joined the costumed Jack, including one named Rocky from 1982–85 and one named Daisy in 1997.