OT and FYI -- from another Hoya
Hoya Saxa is a fight song translating to "What Rocks." Here is more info than you could possibly have wanted courtesy of hoyasaxa.com (you asked for it, sort of)...
Cheers & Yells
With the onset of intercollegiate sports at Georgetown, cheers and yells became an important part of the game. Fans employed a variety of yells in the years after the Civil War, but one which survived became a lasting tradition, known as the "Hoya" yell:
"Hoya, Hoya Saxa!
Hoya, Hoya Georgetown!
Hoya, Team! Team! Team!"
The Hoya yell first appeared in print with accounts of Georgetown football games against North Carolina and Swarthmore in November, 1893. The yell was once said to be reserved for lettermen of the University and those "who had won their letter in life."
Many national and foreign dignitaries were often given a rousing "Hoya!" when visiting the campus. One notable story was the arrival of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, to Georgetown in 1936. Awarded an honorary degree, the cardinal was startled (but later amused) to hear the dignified ceremony conclude with a rousing cry from the students in attendance: "Hoya Hoya Saxa! Hoya Hoya Georgetown! Hoya Pacelli! Pacelli! Pacelli!"
Today, a shorter version is often heard at sporting events, with one group of fans starting the volley yelling "Hoya!" and another group returning a "Saxa!" and so forth, growing louder after every yell. Other contemporary cheers include the Spellout ("H...O...Y...A ...S.. Hoyas!"), "Let's Go Hoyas!" and "We Are Georgetown!", the latter of which is usually reserved for the end of each game.
"What's" A Hoya...
The origins of the word "Hoya" defy simple explanation. Over the years, some have claimed it is an Indian word, while those of a legal mind thought it related to the French word oyez, the traditional opening of judicial sessions. Still others held that with Georgetown's location along a river, Hoya might be an offshoot of the nautical "ahoy". None of these claims have held water, so to speak.
The official explanation holds that there was a baseball team at Georgetown called the "Stonewalls". It is suggested that a student, applying Greek and Latin, dubbed the team the hoia saxa-- hoia is the Greek neuter plural for "what" or "what a", while saxa is the Latin neuter plural for "rock". Substituting a "y" for an "i"; "hoya saxa" literally means "what rocks".
To this day, however, no one has proven exactly when and under what circumstances the yell originated. While there was a Stonewalls team between 1866 and 1873, an actual reference to the team is pure speculation. Some have held that hoia saxa referred not to the team but its surroundings--the team's field (the present site of Copley Lawn) was bounded by the College Walls along 37th street. One theory holds that words such as saxa (Latin for "rocks") were scribbled on the walls for years and a similar phrase may have simply been adopted by fans of the baseball team.
The Hoya yell gained additional attention in 1920. In that year, a fledgling student newspaper known as The Hilltopper petitioned Rev. Coleman Nevils, S.J., Dean of the College, to change its name to The HOYA, a name said to be more representative of the University. Nevils, who had championed naming the Holy Cross student paper "The Hoia" without success in 1916, enthusiastically approved the change.
As the college paper was often cited by sportswriters covering Georgetown sports in the 1920's, it took only a few years for a nickname to be born. By the fall of 1928, a HOYA sportswriter began to refer to the football team as the "Hoyas" rather than its contemporary nickname of the "Hilltoppers". The change was picked up by local writers as basketball season began, and Hoyas became the official Georgetown nickname within a few years.
Among all college programs, only Georgetown University holds the unique team nickname to which its students, faculty, alumni, and fans can take pride in. But the Hoya yell did find its way into the fight songs of two other Jesuit colleges: Holy Cross' "Hoiah, Holy Cross", and Marquette's "Ring Out Ahoya". Each appears to have its roots, however distant, in the yell begun on a college yard many years ago. In short, "Hoya" may be difficult to define, but its tradition endures. And that's "what" it's all about. |
