Retired Number
Retiring the number of an athlete is an honor a team bestows on a player, usually after the player has left the team or retires from the game. Once a number is retired, no future player from the team may use that number, unless the player so-honored permits it. Such an honor may also be bestowed on players who had highly memorable careers, have died prematurely under tragic circumstances, or have had their promising careers ended by serious injury. Some sports that retire team numbers include baseball, 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 above the team's home arena.
The first number officially retired by a team in a professional sport was that of hockey player Lionel Hitchman, whose number 3 was retired by the Boston Bruins in 1934.
Read more about Retired Number: Details and Examples, League-wide Retirements, Auto Racing, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words retired and/or number:
“Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“In the U.S. for instance, the value of a homemaker’s productive work has been imputed mostly when she was maimed or killed and insurance companies and/or the courts had to calculate the amount to pay her family in damages. Even at that, the rates were mostly pink collar and the big number was attributed to the husband’s pain and suffering.”
—Gloria Steinem (20th century)