Retirement

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. Once a number is retired, no future player from the team may wear that number on their uniform, unless the player so-honored 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 arena.

The first number officially retired by a team in a professional sport was that of ice hockey player Ace Bailey, whose number 6 was retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1934. Some teams have also retired number 12 in honor of their fans, or the “Twelfth Man”. Similarly, the Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic retired number 6 in honor of their fans, the “Sixth Man”. In some cases, a team may decide to retire a number in honor of tragedies involving the team’s city or state. For example, the number 58 was retired in 2018 by the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team in honor of the 58 victims killed in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.