The Georgetown's athletics department fields 24 men's and women's varsity level teams and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Big East Conference, with the exception of the Division I FCS Patriot League in football and women's heavyweight rowing.

The team name is derived from the mixed Greek and Latin chant "Hoya Saxa" (meaning "What Rocks"), which gained popularity at the school in the late nineteenth century.

[6] Father William McFadden, S.J., campus Jesuit and the team's in-house announcer at the Capital One Arena, has disputed the Greek and Latin origin, suggesting the classical words were retroactively applied to a nonsensical cheer.

This was influenced by a popular half time show at football games, where the mascot, a dog nicknamed "Hoya," would entertain fans.

"[8] Harrison High School, located in Kennesaw, Georgia, is the only other institution in the country licensed to share this name.

[9] In 1964, the school permitted exhibition football games to resume, and students financed the purchase of a young English bulldog named Royal Jacket, whom they intended to rename "Hoya", but he only responded to the callname "Jack".

The athletics department subsequently adopted as its logo a drawing of a bulldog sporting a blue and gray freshman beanie.

[9] In 1999, Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., with the help of the Hoya Blue fan club, revived the tradition of an official live bulldog named Jack, to work along with the costumed mascot.

[11] When Pilarz left for the University of Scranton in 2003, taking Jack with him, Georgetown secured a new bulldog puppy and found another Jesuit, Christopher Steck, S.J., to care for him.

Girls from neighboring Georgetown Visitation sewed the original uniforms together for the team and presented the Boat Club with a blue and gray banner reading "Ocior Euro" (Swifter than the Wind).

Campus spirit groups often encourage students to "bleed Hoya blue," a slogan used on teeshirts and bumper stickers sold to fans.

In 1899, Georgetown took the intercollegiate baseball world by storm, winning 18 of 20 games against college teams, beating national powers Princeton and Yale three times each and Virginia twice.

The Hilltoppers reached the pinnacle of college baseball when they were acclaimed intercollegiate national champions at season's end.

Upon their triumphant return from their northern trip at the conclusion of that year, the championship team was escorted from the train station to Georgetown in a torchlight parade led by a carriage of top university officials and included students on horseback, alumni, students from the three schools, and the college band.

The Hoyas historically have been well regarded not only for their team success, but also for their ability to generate players that after graduation succeed both on the court, such as Patrick Ewing, and off, such as Paul Tagliabue and Henry Hyde.

[29] The women's team so far has not seen the same success as the men's, and have only been invited to the NCAA tournament three times, reaching the Sweet Sixteen in 1993 and 2011, and the second round in 2010.

[23] By the 1940s, Georgetown had one of the better college football teams in America, and played in the 1941 Orange Bowl, where they lost 14–7 to Mississippi State.

As the college game became more expensive after World War II, however, Georgetown's program began to lose money rapidly.

[43] Both the men's and women's lacrosse teams have been highly competitive in recent years, both in conference and tournament play.

[50] The university rents space in Thompson Boat Center, though it has ongoing plans to build a new boathouse closer to campus.

[66] The women's soccer team began play in 1991, have been coached by Dave Nolan since 1999, and share the same home field.

[79] The men's and women's teams have both been ranked #1 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association in recent years, both nationally and in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

[80] In 2011, the women's cross country program won the NCAA Championship by besting Big East rival Villanova.

It was founded in the spring semester of 1967 by former members of the Washington, D.C., Rugby Football Club, including graduate student Michael Murphy.

[89] In 2005, Georgetown's first reached the Final Four of the USA Rugby Collegiate Division II National Tournament.

[93] The team previously played in the Division III Mason-Dixon Collegiate Hockey Association, where it won the league championship in 1997, 1999, and 2000.

[93] After Bernard Muir left the position as the Director of the Athletic Department on May 11, 2009, a year long search for a replacement began.

Dr. Daniel R. Porterfield, Senior Vice President for Strategic Development, served as Interim Director of Athletics beginning June 3, 2009, until Lee Reed took the position on April 15, 2010.

[96][97] With the rise of Georgetown's men's basketball team in the 1980s, the Hoyas became increasingly associated with the Black community in the United States and in the Washington, D.C., area in particular.

[98] Consequently, Georgetown came to be referenced in work by African-American artists, including Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It,[99] Outkast's Aquemini [100] and Jay-Z's Kingdom Come.