Retired number

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. If a jersey is retired and an active player is still wearing it, the player is usually permitted to wear the number for his entire career as a player. If in the sport, managers and coaches wear uniform numbers, and the player later becomes a coach for the same team, he is also permitted to wear it as a coach.

However, in some cases the player may elect to change their number. For instance, in 1987 the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League decided to retire jersey number 7 in honour of Phil Esposito, who had become a star while playing for the team. At the time #7 belonged to Ray Bourque, who was the Bruins' captain and had become a star in his own right. On the night of the ceremony honouring Esposito, Bourque took to the ice wearing his normal #7 jersey, which he had worn since breaking into the league in 1979. He skated over to the Hall of Famer, took off his #7 jersey and handed it to Esposito in what was referred to as Bourque's "surrendering" of #7 to Esposito. Underneath was a jersey numbered 77, which would become as associated with Bourque as #7 had been with Esposito in Boston. Bourque's new jersey number would eventually join Esposito's in the rafters of TD Garden, as the Bruins retired his #77 following his 2001 retirement.

Some teams either formally or informally take a jersey out of circulation when a player dies or has their career ended by serious injury or disease. For instance, between 1934-2016, the Toronto Maple Leafs only retired a player's number if he experienced a career-ending incident while playing for the team. As a result, they had only retired two jerseys in their history during that time; Ace Bailey's #6 was retired after he suffered a career-ending head injury and Bill Barilko's #5 was retired after his disappearance and presumed death on a fishing trip (his death was confirmed years later with the discovery of the wreckage of the plane on which he was flying).

Wayne Gretzky's number 99 was retired league-wide by the National Hockey League at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. As recently as the late spring of 2016, this same status has also been proposed for Willie O'Ree's player number 22 within the National Hockey League by at least one player, former San Jose Sharks forward Joel Ward, of Barbadian Canadian descent; as O'Ree was the first black hockey player in the NHL, commencing play with the Boston Bruins on 18 January 1958.

In May 2018, the Humboldt Broncos took steps to be ready for the start of the next hockey season by looking to replace positions that had been lost through the accident, as well as an invitation-only camp in Saskatoon. On July 3, 2018, the team introduced Nathan Oystrick as their new head coach. The club played their first home game of the 2018–19 season on September 12 against Nipawin, which was televised nationally by TSN, and simulcast by CTV's Saskatchewan stations, as well as NHL Network in the United States. Most of the surviving players were in attendance and following the game, the numbers of all players on the bus were formally retired by the team. For players who are still active or planned to return to the Broncos (Brayden Camrud, Derek Patter, and Tyler Smith), they will retain their number while active, and they will be retired after the conclusion of their careers with the team. Despite scoring the first goal of the game, the Broncos lost the season opener by the score of 2–1.

In Finnish ice hockey, if a player's number is retired, family members (most notably his son, or son-in-law) can use the retired number if he plays for the same organization. Timo Nummelin had his number 3 retired by TPS, and later his son, Petteri Nummelin, wore number 3 for the team.