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The Georgetown Hoyas football team represents
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision level of college football. Like other sports teams from Georgetown, the team is named the Hoyas, which derives from the chant, ''
Hoya Saxa Hoya Saxa ( ) is the official cheer and "college yell" of Georgetown University and its athletics teams. The term is an Ancient Greek word usually transliterated from as from the word () meaning "such" or "what" as in "what manner of", and is ...
''. They play their home games at Cooper Field on the Georgetown University campus in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Their best season in the recent era was produced in 2011 when the team, which was led by the Class of 2012, produced an 8-3 record.


History

The first football team at Georgetown was formed on November 1, 1874, with the earliest recorded intercollegiate games dating to 1887. By the 1940s, Georgetown played in the
Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...
, where they lost 14–7 to
Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...
. As the college game became more expensive after World War II, Georgetown's program began to lose money rapidly. The Hoyas' last successful season was 1949, when they lost in the Sun Bowl against Texas Western. After a 2–7 season in 1950, Georgetown attempted to salvage its program by softening its schedule, replacing major opponents such as Penn State, Miami, and Tulsa with Richmond, Bucknell, and Lehigh. The program was losing too much money, however, and on March 22, 1951 the University's president canceled the football program. In 1962, Georgetown allowed its students to start a football program as an exhibition-only club sport. New games began in 1964, with their first match drawing 8,000 spectators to see the Hoyas host another university with an unofficial program,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...
(NYU). Varsity football resumed in 1970 at what later became known as the
Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...
level. In 1976, Georgetown began an annual rivalry game with the Catholic University Cardinals for the Steven Dean Memorial Trophy. The competition ended in 1993, when Georgetown moved into the Division I Football Championship Subdivision because of NCAA legislation forbidding Division I or II schools from playing football in lower divisions. In 1993, the team joined the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and ...
, a mostly Catholic conference on the East Coast. With eight wins, the team won the conference championship outright in 1997, and were co-champions in 1998 with nine wins. In 2001 the team joined the Patriot League, with the lowest football budget in the league. In 2012, the Patriot League transitioned to 60 full scholarships but Georgetown remained non-scholarship, further hurting its competitiveness in that conference. The Hoyas have posted just one winning season since 2000, an 8-3 record in 2011, just prior to the Patriot League's decision to add scholarships. Head coach Kevin Kelly was named the conference Coach of the Year.


Classifications

*1937–1950: NCAA University Division *1951–1963: ''No team'' *1964–1969: National Club Football Association *1970–1972: NCAA Division II *1973–1992: NCAA Division III *1993–present: NCAA Division I–AA/FCS


Conference memberships

*1887–1906: Independent *1907–1921:
South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association The South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SAIAA) was an intercollegiate athletic conference with its main focus of promoting track and arranging track meets. Its member schools were located in the states of Maryland, Virginia, North ...
*1922–1950: Independent *1951–1963: ''No team'' *1964–1972: Independent *1970–1972: Division II Independent *1973–1992: Division III Independent *1993–1999:
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and ...
*2000: Division I–AA Independent *2001–present: Patriot League


Stadiums

Georgetown has played football at various on-campus intramural fields. From 1891 until 1893, the stadium known as
Boundary Field Boundary Field, also known as American League Park II and National Park, is a former baseball ground in Washington, D.C. located on the site currently occupied by Howard University Hospital; bounded approximately by Georgia Avenue, 5th Street ...
played host to Georgetown football. From 1921 until 1950,
Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundar ...
played host to Georgetown football. Currently, the Hoyas play at Cooper Field, previously called Multi-Sport Field, which was upgraded from Harbin Field in 2003. Construction on Cooper Field was sidelined for 15 years until it was completed in 2020. The facility will open in the fall of 2021 with capacity for 4,000.


D.C. Cup Rivalry Game

The Hoyas had a brief cross-town rivalry with
Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
for a title known as the DC Mayor's Cup (awarded by the mayor of Washington). Three games were held (2008, 2009 and 2011). The series has Georgetown leading 2–1–0 following their 2011 victory. The series was slated to resume in 2019 but Howard discontinued the series to sign a series instead with
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.


Conference championships

The Hoyas have won six conference championships, highlighted by a run of four conference championships in seven years, although Georgetown went 78 years without a conference championship, in part due to not being part of a conference from 1921 to 1993. † denotes co-championship.


Bowl games

Georgetown competed in two major
bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...
s, including a New Year's Day bowl game.


Polling

Georgetown was ranked in the AP Poll while a member of the Major College Division.


Alumni

Perhaps the football team's most accomplished athlete was Al Blozis, who played for the NFL's New York Giants before being killed in action in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Blozis's great athletic accomplishments, however, came in shot put and discus. He set the world indoor record for the shot put, throwing it 56 feet 4.5 inches in 1941. He was the national indoor and outdoor shot put champion in both 1942 and 1943. "Big Jim" Ricca, an NFL
defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...
and offensive lineman, graduated in 1949 and was the last Hoya to play in an NFL game.
Jim Schwartz James J. Schwartz (born June 2, 1966) is an American football coach who is a Senior Defensive Assistant for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He was head coach of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) ...
, former head coach of the NFL's Detroit Lions, was a four-year letterman at linebacker. He received Distinguished Economics Graduate honors and earned numerous honors in 1988, including Division III CoSIDA/GTE Academic All-America, All-America, and team captain. In 2007, the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
made Alex Buzbee a reserve player, becoming the first Georgetown player on an NFL team since Ricca retired in 1956. In 2010, Buzbee joined the
Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
of the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
.


Players in the NFL Draft


Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of November 22, 2019.


References


External links

* {{Patriot League football navbox 1874 establishments in Washington, D.C. American football teams established in 1874