{"id":7414,"date":"2007-03-24T15:50:56","date_gmt":"2007-03-24T20:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/03\/24\/such-rocks-what-the-hells-a-hoya\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:51","slug":"such-rocks-what-the-hells-a-hoya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/03\/24\/such-rocks-what-the-hells-a-hoya\/","title":{"rendered":"such rocks – “what the hell’s a hoya?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 haiku update <\/em>(noon, March 25, 2007):\u00a0In case you thought only males wrote haiku and senryu about March Madness, please scroll down to the poems that Roberta Beary<\/a> sent over our e-transome early this morning.\u00a0 You’ll find her game-winning three-pointers at the foot of this post. <\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"GUJackMugG\"\u00a0 Jack the Bulldog<\/a>\u00a0is the mascot of the sports teams at my college alma mater<\/em> Georgetown University. The last time\u00a0you saw Jack’s image at this website, I was complaining<\/a> about Florida’s ban<\/a> on\u00a0the use of a pit bull\u00a0logo<\/a> by\u00a0motorcycle lawyers\u00a0Pape & Chandler.\u00a0 Similarly, the last discussion<\/a> of NCAA basketball here at f\/k\/a<\/em>, concerned the antitrust implications of the NCAA purchasing the NIT (plus an\u00a0explanation<\/a> of why non<\/em>profit organizations\u00a0might seek\u00a0to eliminate competition).\u00a0 Frankly, I’m not much of a sports fan (except for\u00a0good basketball\u00a0and baseball haiku<\/a>), and was even going to spare you my usual lament<\/a> over the flood of cliches that comes this time every year,\u00a0e.g.<\/em>, “March Madness<\/a>” and “The Big Dance<\/a>” (which is not to be confused with this<\/em> big dance<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But<\/em>, no son of Georgetown with a weblog could possibly fail to mention the play of this year’s Hoya team, so far,\u00a0in the NCAA Division I\u00a0basketball championship tournament.\u00a0 As the\u00a0news media\u00a0is reporting today, Georgetown beat Vanderbuilt last night [66 to 65] to advance to the regional final [“Elite Eight”] for the first time since 1996. See\u00a0\u00a0“Hoyas past is becoming present<\/a>,” New York Times<\/em>, by John Branch (March 24, 2007);\u00a0“Money on the Bank<\/a>,” Washington Post<\/em>, by Camille Powell, March 24, 2007.\u00a0\u00a0Even I\u00a0watched the last three minutes of this exciting game, in which the “Heart-attack Hoyas” pulled out another last-moment victory. My BBall-crazy friends tell me that the Hoyas have given fans some of the best collegiate games of the year the past couple of weeks.\u00a0 [update<\/em>: 9 PM Sunday: Congratulations to the Hoyas on making it to the Final Four.\u00a0They sure made it interesting. See “Georgetown Gets Revenge on UNC 96 to 84<\/a>,” Raleigh Chronicle<\/em>, March 25, 2007]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s enough sports-talk for me — except to note (via HoyaSaxa.com<\/em><\/a>) that this is the 100th Season of intercollegiate basketball at Georgetown (many of which were quite dreadful, until the coming of the first John Thompson and Patrick Ewing<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"bballGuys\"\u00a0However, you deserve the usual\u00a0portion of punditry\u00a0and poetry before you leave today.\u00a0 The poetry is below, from a few of our Honored Guest Poets<\/a>.\u00a0 For punditry, I want to point you to Skip Sauer’s discussion of wasted office\u00a0time spent on NCAA tournament brackets,\u00a0in\u00a0“March Madness & the Hype Machine<\/a>”\u00a0(March 19, 2007), at The Sports Economist<\/em>\u00a0weblog.\u00a0 For interesting but largely useless information, I am going to answer the question often asked by fans of opposing teams, “What the hell’s a Hoya?<\/em>”\u00a0 The story that I have heard and believed for forty years [except for the supposed meaning of\u00a0“rocks” given below] can be found at Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

“What is a Hoya?<\/em>“<\/font><\/p>\n

The University admits that the precise origin of the term “Hoya” is unknown. The official story is that at some point before 1920, students well-versed in the classical languages invented the Greek hoia or hoya, meaning “what” or “such”, and the Latin saxa, to form “What Rocks!” Depending on who tells the story, the “rocks” either refer to the baseball team, which was nicknamed the “Stonewalls” after the Civil War, to the stalwart defense of the football team, or to the stone wall that surrounded the campus.<\/font><\/p>\n

\"GUBBall\"\u00a0 <\/font>In 1920, students began publishing the campus’s first regular newspaper under the name The Hoya<\/em>, after successfully petitioning Rev. Coleman Nevils, S.J., Dean of the College, to change the name of the young paper, which was originally to be known as The Hilltopper. By the fall of 1928, the newspaper had taken to referring to the sports teams (then called the Hilltoppers in reference to Georgetown’s geography) as the Hoyas. Dean Nevils’s former school, College of the Holy Cross, also refers to the term “Hoya” in one of its fight songs, as does a third Jesuit school, Marquette University.\u00a0 <\/font>Big East and other opponents, whose schools tend to have more concrete nicknames, have long used “What’s a Hoya?” as a chant to mock Georgetown.<\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, turn down that game, and enjoy haiku and senryu about basketball, from Ed Markowski and a few other f\/k\/a<\/em> friends:\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Manhattan\u00a0 \"ballHoopF\"
\nthe shadow of a skyscraper falls across
\nthe basketball court <\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

long rebound
\ncrossing mid-court
\nshe crosses my mind<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Indiana farm
\none tractor
\nthree hoops<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\"bballHoop\"\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
calligraphy class
\nthe point guard
\npens a nike swoosh<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

city moon
\nmy basketball flattened
\nby a shard of glass<\/p>\n

\n

\nstiff march wind
\nthe sound
\nof an airball<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

game winning shot
\nthe big man
\npalms my head<\/p>\n

\n
……………………….. by\u00a0ed markowski<\/font><\/a>\u00a0<\/font><\/span>\u00a0 \"BBallGuysN\"<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
the bounce
\nof raindrops
\non the basketball<\/div>\n
\n
….. by w.f. owen\u00a0– Frogpond<\/em> XXIII:3 (2000)<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\"bballGuys\"\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
boy shooting baskets–
\ndeep snow piled
\nall around him<\/div>\n
……. by lee gurga from Fresh Scent<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
H-O-R-S-E!
\nthe ten-year-old
\nlets dad win<\/div>\n
…………. by dagosan<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
game over
\nmen turn to leave
\nthe tv department<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
………………….. by John Stevenson\u00a0 – Upstate Dim Sum<\/em>\u00a0 (2004\/I)<\/div>\n
\n
\"HaigaHoopViewM\"\u00a0 [click for original<\/a>]<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
the view
\nfrom the sofa –
\nApril madness<\/div>\n
\n
. . . haiga<\/font><\/a> by <\/em>Arthur Giacalone (photo)\u00a0& David Giacalone\u00a0(poem);<\/div>\n
HaigaOnline<\/em> Issue 7-2 (Autumn-Winter 2006), intro page<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"sunglassesG\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 update<\/em>:(March 25, 2007): No haijin covers gender\u00a0wars the way Roberta Beary can.\u00a0 Inspired by this posting last night, she turned her focus on the NCAA basketball tournament — no fouls or double-dribbles here:<\/p>\n

march madness
\nhis team slam dunks
\nour date<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

march madness\u00a0\u00a0 \"bballGuys\"
\nhe enters my bedroom
\nto check the score<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

march madness
\nhe tells me his fantasy
\nteams<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

march madness
\nhe fits me in
\npre-game<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0. . by Roberta Beary<\/font><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"BearyRoberta\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 haiku update (noon, March 25, 2007):\u00a0In case you thought only males wrote haiku and senryu about March Madness, please scroll down to the poems that Roberta Beary sent over our e-transome early this morning.\u00a0 You’ll find her game-winning three-pointers at the foot of this post. \u00a0 Jack the Bulldog\u00a0is the mascot of the sports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1VA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12583,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7414\/revisions\/12583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}