Jack the Bulldog

Jack the Bulldog
Jack (John S. Carroll) visiting students
University	Georgetown University
Conference	Big East
Description	English bulldog
Origin of name	Lil-Nan's Royal Jacket
First seen	1962

Jack the Bulldog is the official mascot of the Georgetown University Hoyas athletic teams. Jack has been the name of at least five live Bulldogs since 1962, when the name first came into use, though Georgetown counts seven official bulldog mascots including the two living ones. The current incarnation of Jack is an English Bulldog born in 2013 whose full name is John B. Carroll.

A puppy born in 2012 named Jack Junior, or J.J., began assisting Jack in April 2012, allowing the older Jack to retire after the 2012–13 school year and transfer his duties to Jack Junior. However, university administrators determined in July 2013 that J.J. would not be the school's mascot going forward. By the end of August 2013, a new puppy had been identified from the same breeders, and John B. Carroll was introduced to the campus in October 2013.

Jack was not always the name of the Georgetown Hoyas' mascot, nor was the mascot always a bulldog, as other types of dogs, particularly bull terriers, were associated with the sports teams before 1962. In 2009, the American Kennel Club ranked Jack as the 8th most popular dog in American culture. Today, Georgetown is among thirty-nine American universities to use a bulldog as their mascot, with Georgia, Butler, Mississippi State, Yale and James Madison being the only others with a live bulldog. Jack is also portrayed by a costumed character Bulldog mascot, a tradition dating to 1977.

Dogs have been associated with the school's sports teams on an unofficial basis since the late nineteenth century. Early dog mascots may have included a mutt called Hoya around 1900, a Borzoi named Richmond Jack in 1906, a bulldog named Hoya in 1907, and a Boston Bull Terrier in 1911. At that time, most mascots were primarily associated with the school's football team, and were cared for by students or individual sports teams, rather than the administration.