Christmas break is tough. I was forced to linger in bed well past noon and suffer the day away, trapped within the suffocating confines of an oversized couch. From that couch all I could possibly do was watch game after game of college football as I slipped in and out of sleep, rising from a prone position only to consume such awful foods as hot wings and chips.
It was easy to forget the stress of finals amidst the delights of sports valhalla. With the basketball team off playing Navy and Towson in meaningless filler games, Georgetown sports weren’t really in my mind much at all through the New Year. It wasn’t until a late night game between the University of Georgia and Virginia Tech that my sports vigil brought forth thoughts of the Hilltop.
I was a child of the Big East even before I started school at Georgetown, and no true Big East fan can ever root for the treacherous VT Hokies after their recent exodus to the ACC. As Georgia mounted a thrilling fourth quarter comeback, I had no trouble feeling vicarious joy through the throng of Georgia supporters on the television screen, all of whom were going absolutely nuts. All but one.
Uga VI, Georgia’s bulldog mascot showed no such support. Dog or not, I was almost offended at his blatant indifference. I was even more offended when my friend pointed and referred to him as the greatest bulldog mascot he had ever seen. Anyone who has ever seen Uga knows that he, in all his wrinkled slobbering glory, dwarfs our beloved Jack in terms of size, but seeing him sit so quietly while his team marched to victory reminded me why Jack is the better dog.
When I came to the senior night game against Syracuse last year as a prospective freshman, I was delighted to watch Jack chomping at the bit along the baseline as he waited for the word to attack the Orangeman effigy that awaited at center court. When his handlers let go, he dismantled his victim in much the same way that our Hoyas dismantled Syracuse that day.
With Christmas break more than half finished, and with conference play looming, this one incident with Uga sparked a series of troublesome thoughts for me. My last memory of Jack before the break was from the Oregon game. Jack was stationed directly behind the press table, and I didn’t hear him throughout the entire game. No barking, no relentless leash tugging, nothing of the Jack I thought I knew. The lackluster play of the team that night coupled with the unenergetic and oft-incoherent cheers of the student section went right along with Jack’s silence.
It was somewhat comforting to see our basketball team play so well against Michigan and Notre Dame in the days before the beginning of the spring term, but I was still nervous and very anxious to see how the Georgetown school spirit and its little four-legged indicator would react to 2007. The Villanova game offered a very promising glimpse of that spirit.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright’s three-quarter press was the perfect answer to JTIII’s half court offense, and Nova’s execution was exceptional. Losing to Villanova will never sit well with any Georgetown fan, but this is college basketball and conference losses are more than inevitable. The important thing is what was going on around the court during Monday night’s game. The cheers led by Hoya Blue were much more energetic and well timed then they have been, and Jack was a bundle of energy as he dragged his student handlers across the court at the beginning of the game.
We know that we have a talented basketball team, and we know the potential that comes with a John Thompson pacing in front of a bench. We are not lacking in any of the tangibles that make up a good basketball team. With the comfort of a winning streak now gone, the question becomes whether or not the intangible factors, the school spirit, remain intact. Keeping with this school year’s theme of tradition, the school web site features a small bio and description of Jack. It says that the bulldog became the unofficial mascot of GU in 1962 to represent the stubborn tenacity of the students and athletes of the school. It is that spirit that makes Jack far greater than Uga VI, regardless of size. The Georgetown bulldog is meant to be a symbol of school spirit, and it would be an injustice to the team and the school for that spirit to waiver after a loss.
