RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Queenie]

Does your school retire numbers? If so, what are the criteria? Do they differ between the men's and women's programs?

Does your school honor numbers? If so, what are the criteria? Do they differ between the men's and women's programs?

Are there circumstances where a number might not be given out, or needs permission to be given out, with or without an official retirement?

In general, what is your opinion on retiring numbers in college?

These questions inspired by Iona giving out the numbers of all-time leading scorer Damika Martinez (class of 2015) and all-time leading rebounder Joy Adams (class of 2016), but also by the Red Storm's obnoxious tendency to hand out #3 after being worn by a star (Da'Shena Stevens to all-time leading scorer Aliyyah Handford, now to Tiana England {good luck, Tiana, you have to win freshman of the year just to be best #3 from Stamford}) and Seton Hall immediately giving out all-time leading scorer Tabatha Richardson-Smith's number as soon as she finished her career.

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Ardent believer in the separation of church and stadium.

[Ex-Ref]

I think that you need to have a really, really special career to have your number retired. Like program-changing special.

If the honor is to go to the leading scorer or rebounder, does the previous number go back into circulation? Or is it forever retired?

Eventually, programs will begin to run out of numbers if the criteria isn't pretty strict. Especially if the NCAA sticks to the current legal numbers (which I'm in favor of, BTW).

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"Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw

“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.

[pilight]

Mercer has three retired numbers for women. Andrea Congreaves' #3 was retired shortly after she graduated. Sybil Blalock's #10 was retired just a couple of years ago, more due to her post-playing career than for what she did on the court. Eight players had worn it after her. Vivian Humphrey's #14 was unofficially retired for a long time after her 1981 graduation, then was issued in 1999 and a few times in the 00's before being officially retired in 2010. We have some numbers that haven't been used in a long time. #42, #50, #54, and #55 haven't been issued since the 1970's.

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I'm a lonely frog
I ain't got a home

[PUmatty]

My understanding of Purdue's policy has been that they do not retire numbers on the men's or women's side. However, if a player is an All-American (not exactly sure how this is defined) a banner is hung from the Mackey Arena ceiling along with the Final Four and national title banners.

Here's a photo of some of the men's players' banners:

[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3cDTvcgptPg/TtQgSOY_gRI/AAAAAAAALQA/6uhMvffo5js/s320/DSC_0153.JPG
[/img]

If can't find a photo of the women's banners online, but I believe the included players are Joy Holmes, MaChelle Joseph, Stephanie White, Katie Douglas, Shereka Wright, and Stacey Lovelace.

[summertime blues]

IIRC, Tennessee has retired the numbers of Chamique Holdsclaw (23), Tamika Catchings (24), and a few others. On the men's side, I'm pretty sure they retired the numbers of Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld, but I don't think there's been anyone worth retiring since.....

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Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohows permanent.
It takes 3 years to build a team and 7 to build a program.--Conventional Wisdom

[FrozenLVFan]

[myrtle]

I think it would be cool to do a semi-retirement thing where a number wasn't used for 10 years. Then you could honor a player without putting the number out of circulation forever. [Plus, if they went on to become WNBA MVP you could then permanently retire them.] Or as Purdue does, hang them in the rafters... but also put them out of use for 10 years.

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For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
- Amanda Gorman

[PUmatty]

It doesn't always have to be for play. I would have liked to have seen Purdue retire Tiffany Young's 23 when she was killed.

[Marquette Fan]

I think what Marquette does for the women is honor the players and their jerseys but don't actually retire the numbers.

[linkster]

UConn doesn't retire numbers but they honor exceptional players by displaying the player's jersey with their name on it. In fact it's the only way to get your name on a Husky jersey.

[Queenie]

[awhom111]

Now Duke retires any player who graduates and wins either an NPOY or a National DPOY award. There used to be no set criteria other than graduation, but once fans of the women's team tried to get numbers retired like the men's team, they had to invent them so they could argue back. Unfortunately this hurts both programs and there are probably some unretired jerseys who are more deserving than players who were retired. By this criteria, Alana Beard, Lindsey Harding, and Elizabeth Williams had their jersey retired.

Men's Lacrosse has players who fit these criteria unofficially retired. None of those numbers have been reused since those players graduated. That is not the case in Women's Lacrosse, though it should be because Katie Chrest had an absolutely fantastic career and is fully deserving. We have a number of Men's Soccer players who also meet the criteria, but have not been retired. I would also like criteria to be established for Field Hockey, where we have had great players, but they are not always in the positions that would lead to awards based on statistics.

Personally, the only key criteria is graduation. I tend to be biased towards players who have had three or four solid years over those who have one or two spectacular years. Players who help establish programs early should get a boost so people like Chris Moreland and Georgia Schweitzer at Duke should have an advantage over players who join the program now and have similar numbers.

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https://wbasketballblog.com/author/awhom111/