The bulldog was selected as our mascot in 1962. In that year, a student committee set out to restore the tradition of a live mascot, a tradition that had lapsed in 1951 when the University suspended varsity football. The committee settled on the English bulldog as the breed that best embodied the tenacity of Hoya athletes. A three-year-old purebred bulldog was purchased, one who came with the pedigree name of Lil-Nan's Royal Jacket, but who answered to Jack. The original plan was to rename the dog Hoya, a name that had been carried by a series of Boston bull terriers who served as our mascots in the 1920s and 1930s. The dog, however, had other ideas and "tenaciously" refused to answer to any name other than Jack, thus starting the mascot naming tradition.