About Last Night: A DCist Special Report
Editor's Note: Erin Zimmer, DCist Staff writer, is a senior at Georgetown. Last night, she took part in the festivities following Georgetown's Elite Eight victory over UNC. The following is an account of the proceedings.
For all of last night's game, Georgetown townhouses kept their doors open. Crowds of kids huddled around their televisions, jumping up and down at every play. But once the magical three-pointer tied up the game (81-81) with 24 seconds left on the clock, Hoyas went from crazy to absolute berserk mode. The final score had people out in the streets, texting and calling family. But the mood was still tense. Five minutes of overtime is still a long time.
When the first basket was made -- symbolizing our first lead of the game since the first half (83-81) -- the Georgetown community experienced a mini-earthquake. Cheers echoed off every brick wall. And so began the five minutes of Tar Heels sucking. After watching them butcher every shot, everyone realized we were actually going to beat UNC. Berserk mode transitioned to high-definition berserk mode, and Hoyas came out of the woodwork, ripping off their shirts, running into the streets and screaming. A near-riot formed on the library steps, and packed a block of N Street between 36th and 37th St. Police lined street corners, some on horses. Moshing and crowd surfing lasted about an hour. Non-stop chanting of "Hoya Saxa." "Fuck Ohio State." "Roy Roy Roy Roy..." "Jeff Green's Mom." (I'm unclear about the significance of that last one). Fireworks went off; sparklers lighted. Hoyas hung out of townhouse windows. Then somebody yelled "run down M Street," and a massive stampede was born.
Students charged both sides of the streets like mad. Cars stopped on M Street and drivers high-fived runners weaving in between them. A few passengers in flashier cars were yelling at cops when Hoyas joyously slapped their windows and almost climbed onto their hoods. The herd lingered at the Wisconsin Ave and M St. intersection, until someone yelled "the White House." Nobody questioned. We all adapted the mob mentality and ran.
By the time we reached Foggy Bottom, a portion of the herd trailed off. But it all evened out when a few GW students and anonymous pedestrians joined the celebratory sprint. Hundreds made it to the north facade of the White House and lined the fence, chanting "speech!" Lights on the front lawn came on, and security guards came out in droves. They told us to get off the fence, and eventually made everyone leave. But we stayed long enough to sing the Georgetown fight song and shout "Hoya Saxa" on repeat mode. A few Iraq allusions, and much more love for Roy Hibbert. Even the Star-Spangled Banner got in there.
The herd walked (maybe comfortably jogged) the way back, lined by a bumper-to-bumper row of police cars, vans and motorcycles. They honked and yelled into megaphones, making sure we stayed on the sidewalk. But that didn't really happen. The best was when they said "Are you a vehicle or a pedestrian? Get out of the street." A few students grabbed orange traffic cones and stole chairs from outdoor restaurants along Pennsylvania Ave. Some even climbed up the Clark Mills equestrian statue at the center of Washington Circle. Throughout the night, there was a constant flow of bodies between Georgetown's campus and the White House.
The herd was arguably pretty civil and pacifist. No burning or flipping over of cars. After Friday's game, when a small fire blazed outside a campus dorm, police were pretty concerned, fearing a repeat performance at the White House last night. All we really wanted was a wave from George.
Today our campus is dressed up with blue balloons. Outrageous rumors about tomorrow's ticket sales are rampant. Some say the school has 300. Others claim 1,000. Either way, many Hoyas are crafting plans to camp outside the McDonough gym all night. And networking like crazy to snag rides to Atlanta for this weekend's game.
Though few actually know what it means, Hoya Saxa feels pretty good to say right now.