WASHINGTON – The Georgetown Department of Athletics is pleased to announce the launch of G150, a year-long celebration of 150 years of intercollegiate athletics on the Hilltop. The anniversary year will commence in late August with the start of the 2019-20 school year and will conclude in June of 2020.
The University's athletic history dates to the early beginnings of intercollege competition in the United States. The first officially recorded intercollegiate athletic event involving Georgetown was a baseball game played against neighboring Columbian College on May 10, 1870.
"For 150 years, Georgetown and intercollegiate athletics have continued to evolve and grow, Athletic Director
Lee Reed said in a statement. "G150 is a chance to celebrate how far we've come and look ahead to the next 150 years."
Throughout the upcoming sesquicentennial anniversary year, Georgetown Athletics is planning to recognize its past and celebrate its present in a variety of ways.
- The Department will install light pole banners in the area in front of McDonough Arena that highlight the name of each sport at Georgetown.
- During the course of the year, the Department will regularly highlight one of the 150 top moments in the history of Georgetown Athletics on social media.
- Select uniforms will feature a special patch with the G150 logo.
- Signage at games and alumni/fan events as well as written publications and communications to constituents will showcase the G150 logo.
Team sports did not emerge on the Georgetown campus until after the Civil War. Baseball, popular in the troop encampments of the northern and southern armies, spread rapidly to college campuses. By 1869, the College boasted two intramural baseball clubs, the Stonewalls and the Quicksteps. A select team was chosen from among the two teams to form the College Nine, which went on to compete against neighboring institutions. Games were initially played on the field on which Lauinger Library would later be built, and eventually on the field that is now Copley lawn.
