Teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) retire jersey numbers of players who either are considered by the team to have made significant contributions to that team's success, or who have experienced untimely deaths during their playing career. As with other leagues, once a team retires a player's jersey number, it never issues the number to any other player, unless the player or team explicitly allows it.
Since NCAA teams began retiring numbers, many players have had their jersey number retired. Pittsburgh have the most retired numbers with 10. Unlike professional leagues, no one player has had his number retired by two teams.
Unlike major sports leagues in the United States such as MLB (which retired Jackie Robinson's number 42) and the NHL (which did so for Wayne Gretzky's 99), the NCAA has never retired a jersey number league-wide in honor of anyone.
Nevertheless, there are some cases of retirement of a same number honoring two different players, such as Houston, which retired number 7 worn by David Klingler and Case Keenum, among other similar cases.
Moreover, Michigan retired a number for three players, the #11 in honor of the Wistert brothers. [1] The same did Brigham Young University (BYU), retiring number 6 for three different footballers, Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco, and Luke Staley. [2]
Since 2005, Syracuse holds the record of players honored with a number retirement after the University retired no. 44 worn by 25 different players between 1921 and 1998.
There are also some strange cases such as UCLA retiring #42 for Jackie Robinson although he worn no. 28 as a footballer at the institution; however, the school chose to retire No. 42 because it was more identified with him after Robinson wore that number throughout his Hall of Fame baseball career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. [3] [4]
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame |
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The Colorado Buffaloes football program represents the University of Colorado Boulder in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level, and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference. The team was a charter member of the Big 12 Conference before leaving to join the Pac-12 after the 2010 season. After 13 seasons in the Pac-12, the Buffaloes returned to the Big 12 in 2024. Before joining the Big 12, they were members of the Big Eight Conference. The CU football team has played at Folsom Field since 1924. The Buffs all-time record is 716–520–36 as of the 2022 season. Colorado won the 1990 National Championship. The football program is 27th on the all-time win list and 40th in all-time winning percentage.
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Retiring the number of an athlete is an honor a team bestows upon a player, usually after the player has left the team, retires from the sport, or dies, by taking the number formerly worn on his or her uniform out of circulation. Once a number is retired, no future player from the team may wear it, unless the original player permits it; however, in many cases the number cannot be used at all. Such an honor may also be bestowed on players who had highly memorable careers, died prematurely under tragic circumstances, or have had their promising careers ended by serious injury. Some sports that retire team numbers include baseball, cricket, ice hockey, basketball, American football, and association football. Retired jerseys are often referred to as "hanging from the rafters" as they are, literally, put to hang in the team's home venue.
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