“What's a Hoya?” The cheer hoiasaxa, meaning “what rocks,” was created by a student who combined Greek and Latin terms. There seems to be little doubt regarding the origins of the term hoyasaxa, even though no one seems to know exactly when the term was first used at Georgetown. "Hoia" means "what" and the term Hoya is simply this term with a "y" substituting for an "i."

It seems that the cheer motivated Georgetown Reverend William Carrol to name his dog "Hoya." Hoya was known to bite players on opposing football teams, perhaps making him one of the most violent college mascots in practice. Oddly, he seems to have been left out when they began numbering the "Hoya" mascots! While Reverand Carrol's "Hoya" was likely a mutt, after World War I, the Boston bull terrier became Georgetown's chosen dog. Hoya 1 was from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and teamed up with the Reverend Vincent McDonough, who was prefect of discipline and moderator of athletics at Georgetown University. Hoya would entertain the crowd by pushing a football around the field with his nose at halftime. According to A.P. Kane '28, it was during Hoya I's reign that the team began becoming known as the Hoyas rather than the Hilltoppers or the Blue and Gray.