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School Spirit and Traditions

This place, these people—including those who have come before us—our history and traditions... they interweave our individual experiences and comprise the greater story of Loyola University Maryland.

Since its founding in 1852, Loyola University Maryland's story has been steeped in school spirit, tradition, and a call to do more, be more, and seek more—from ourselves, from one another, and from society. We are proud of our culture: our customs, our quirks, our slang, our shared experiences, and our belief in and aspiration to uphold our motto, Strong Truths Well Lived.  

At the heart of Loyola spirit and tradition is the bond among members of our exceptional community—a community of faculty, administrators, staff, students, and alumni that celebrates and champions its people, lives out our mission, and strives for a shared vision.  

A crowd of students dressed in formal clothing and cheeringStudents pose on stage during the BSA Fashion Show

Traditions

MLK Convocation
Our community gathers for shared inquiry into the issues of social justice, politics, spirituality, and the legacies of race and racial justice in America during the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation every January.
Battle of Charles Street
Greyhounds pride reaches new levels for the annual lacrosse matchup against long-time local rival Johns Hopkins University.
Bull & Oyster Roast
Alumni enjoy a Maryland culinary tradition and a night of festivities with the current senior class during Alumni Weekend, when Loyola grads of all class years return to campus for a reunion featuring a lacrosse tailgate, class cocktail parties, picnics, lectures, service activities, Mass, and more.
Loyolapalooza
Loyola’s annual springtime festival brings carnival rides, fun, food, and a full-blown concert to campus, and the winner of the annual Battle of the Bands contest opens the show.
BSA Fashion Show
This highly anticipated event organized by Loyola’s Black Student Association (BSA) culminates in a night of fashion, music, and community to celebrate Black culture and talent.
Senior Soiree
The senior class gets dressed up and gathers under a tent on the President’s lawn for a night of dinner, dancing, and celebration before their Commencement Ceremony.
Mass of the Holy Spirit
This Mass celebrates the start of a new academic year and is a tradition dating back to the first Jesuit school in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. The Loyola communication gathers in Alumni Memorial Chapel early in September for music, song, and prayer for the coming year.
Initium Week
Students return to campus each fall to a week packed with events and ways to reconnect—from live concerts, games, and a beach volleyball tournament to a casino night and the annual Fall Student Activities Fair.
Chordbusters
Students wake up at 5:30 a.m. to buy tickets for this twice-a-year a cappella concert (and they might already be sold out!).
Humanities Symposium
We celebrate our liberal arts heritage with week-long series of events related to a particular text for students, faculty, friends of the University, and the Baltimore community.
Lessons & Carols
Alumni Memorial Chapel is standing room-only for this beautiful seasonal service featuring candlelight and Christmas carols.
Women in Sports Day
For over 25 years, Loyola Athletics has hosted this annual celebration of girls and women in sports with a full day of activities for the next generation of female athletes surrounding a Greyhounds women’s basketball Patriot League matchup.

School Colors

In the early 1920s, as Loyola was developing its athletics teams, uniforms varied from green, red, blue, and white. The student body decided Loyola should have official colors to represent all sports teams and to build Loyola’s identity, and they proposed and adopted Green and Grey.

Iggy, the mascot, flexing muscles in front of a crowd

Motto and Shield

Loyola’s motto is Strong Truths Well Lived. The official seal, which includes the University’s shield and features our motto unfurled across the bottom, has been in use since 1853. Loyola’s shield is quartered with the lower half reproducing elements from the coat of arms of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus and our namesake. These include the two wolves and kettle and the seven maroon and gold diagonals. The upper half of the shield honors our location: the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore and an Evergreen tree on a field of grey to represent Loyola’s Evergreen campus and school colors.

The Loyola shield, showing the text Strong Truths Well Lived

Mascot

The Greyhound was adopted as Loyola's mascot in 1927. At the time, Baltimore sportswriters were using a variety of nicknames to designate Loyola’s athletics programs, and students sought a distinctive mascot for their sports teams in addition to a name for the school newspaper. The mascot had to embody the new school colors, Green and Grey. Proposals for a mascot included the parrot or parakeet and the grey squirrel. Known for its graceful agility and speed, loyalty, and intelligence, a Greyhound was suggested—and, in a vote among the student body, the Greyhound narrowly defeated the grey squirrel to become the University's official mascot.

Bronze statue of two greyhounds

Alma Mater and Fight Songs

Loyola’s “Alma Mater Anthem” was written by Capt. John Ozazewski, a 1940 graduate, and composed by Felice S. Lula, director of Loyola’s glee club at that time. Throughout its history, Loyola has had various fight songs written by students and faculty, including “Songs of the Green and Grey,” by John O’Niell Miller, ’37, “March On, Men!,” by A.M. Fremgen, S.J., and “A Rally to Victory,” co-written by Fr. Fregmen and a group of faculty. These were sung not only at athletic games but during military training, ceremonies, and other events. In the early 2000s, a contest for students to write a modern fight song gave way to “Howl for the Hounds.”

A group of students wearing Loyola gear during an athletic event