Tag: Jersey

The second day of the second month falling on a women’s basketball Sunday feels like kismet. An appropriate date, 2/2, for two of the most iconic No. 22s this decade.

Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jersey will rise to the rafters of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Sunday, less than a year after her second national championship game in an Iowa Hawkeyes uniform. In Columbia, South Carolina, a garnet one will go up with A’ja Wilson’s No. 22 seven years after her own back-to-back national title appearances.

The number of jersey retirements appears to be ramping up in recent years as players tear through record books and schools turn more attention to blossoming women’s programs. By the end of the Iowa and South Carolina ceremonies, at least four legendary players will have watched their jerseys be raised in the first 33 days of 2025. Two left school within the year. Two more already won WNBA championships together.

Retired jerseys aren’t one-size-fits-all. Schools have different eligibility requirements for jersey retirements, players have to be ready for the honor, and a lot more people are aware of and passionate about women’s basketball than ever before.

“It hasn’t been such a big ordeal, the women’s retirement of their jerseys compared to the men’s,” Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, director of the Sport Management Program at George Washington University and an advisory board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation, told Yahoo Sports. “And it just stems back to — I’m not saying nobody cared, but there were a lot fewer people who cared about women’s basketball than there are now. Obviously now, it’s going to raise the profile of everything these women do.”

Clark had barely played her final game when Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz announced the honor in April during the Hawkeyes’ team celebration at their arena.

“It is a privilege for me to now make that official,” Goetz said while Clark sat near her, under the jerseys of Michelle Edwards (No. 30) and Megan Gustafson (10). “You will be the last to wear No. 22.”

In mid-December, the school revealed the date as its first Big Ten game against No. 4 USC (1:30 p.m. ET). Fox will stay with the broadcast after the game ends for the ceremony. As was the case in her playing days, ticket prices are soaring with combined interest for Clark and Naismith contender JuJu Watkins of USC.

“Strike while the iron is hot is always my marketing [tip],” Delpy Neirotti said. “Historically, I could see why they would retire [the jersey] after the person has kind of proven themselves even more [in the pros], but in today’s world of trying to get as much media and excitement around your programs, leveraging a star athlete is a great strategy.”

Clark, who turned 23 last week, is accustomed to the pomp and circumstance, whether it was record-breaking celebrations or senior night. Yet, this is the first time she won’t be playing in a game beforehand.

“It’s kind of hard to evoke emotion after you just competed for 40 minutes,” Clark said on the Hawkeyes 247 Sports podcast. “But now that I’m not actually going to be playing, I feel like I’ll probably be a little more emotional even though I’m not a super emotional person.”

The South Carolina athletics department stipulates a five-year waiting period for a jersey retirement, beginning at the conclusion of the student-athlete’s final season. Wilson, who completed her collegiate career in March 2018, became eligible in 2023. In a rare experience, she watched the school unveil a statue of her likeness in front of the arena before her number was raised inside of it. The Gamecocks retired three-time All-American Tiffany Mitchell’s No. 25 last season.

Quick jersey retirement turnarounds

The swiftness of Clark’s honor isn’t without precedent. Iowa retired Gustafson’s number eight months after she won 2019 national player of the year accolades and entered the WNBA.

USC retired Cheryl Miller’s No. 31 in 1986 while she was still playing. The three-time Naismith Award winner played five games in the number while it swayed above her at the Galen Center. It was retired again in 2006 during a joint ceremony with Lisa Leslie and followed by Cynthia Cooper (2011), Pam McGee (’12), Paula McGee (‘12) and Tina Thompson (’19). Watkins, a generational talent breaking their records, could see a similar turnaround.

Texas Tech raised Sheryl Swoopes’ No. 22 in February 1994, less than a year after she scored a record 47 points in the NCAA championship game as a senior. Old Dominion retired inaugural Naismith winner Anne Donovan’s No. 22 the winter after her final season. Maryland, whose head coach Brenda Frese delivered the news in prank form, honored Alyssa Thomas’ No. 25 on her senior day in 2014. Georgia followed the same timeline with Teresa Edwards (No. 5) and Katrina McClain (No. 32)

Last month, Virginia Tech honored Elizabeth Kitley, a 2024 grad and 2023 Naismith finalist with Clark. The most decorated Hokie in program history wore No. 33, and it became the first jersey retirement since Renee Dennis (No. 44) in 1987.

Finding the right time

The day before Kitley’s celebration, her former Las Vegas Aces teammate, Kelsey Plum, watched her No. 10 go up. It had been eight years since the guard set the all-time Division I women’s scoring record at Washington, before Clark broke the mark. She was the first female Husky to receive the honor, joining six men’s players, and there was a months-long celebration the school dubbed “Forever 10.”

Some players aren’t ready for the honor or can’t feasibly fit it into their schedules. That was more difficult when most WNBA players played overseas in the offseason. The day after Tennessee made Candace Parker the sixth player to earn the honor (Pat Summitt’s name is also in the rafters), she jetted off to Russia to re-join UMMC Ekaterinburg.

DeWanna Bonner returned to her alma mater in January 2024 for her No. 24 honor. It had been 14 years since she broke the program’s scoring record and finished as national player of the year runner-up.

Brittney Griner, Bonner’s former Phoenix Mercury teammate, waited 12 years after leading Baylor to an undefeated championship to see her No. 42 head to the rafters a year ago. The national player of the year had a strained relationship with former Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, who said she required players to graduate for the honor. Griner received a degree in 2019 and new head coach Nikki Collen made it a priority when the star center was released from a wrongful Russian detention.

As interest in women’s sports grows, there is more push for acknowledgement of the game’s greats. Syracuse retired its first female athlete jersey in 2021 after calls from local fans and media members. Felisha Legette-Jack, a 1989 alumna, became the first in 2021 when she took the head coaching job. All-American Kayla Alexander watched her jersey join it in December.

In their waiting era

Winning national player of the year awards is a near-lock for jersey retirement. While most Naismith winners already received the honor, there are nearly a dozen since 1986 who will be waiting a while.

Connecticut, often referred to as the college basketball capital of the world, is stingy with its jersey retirements. The Huskies’ athletic department only allows players inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to be considered. Players also must be fully retired for four years to be eligible for the Hall.

Ray Allen (No. 34) and Rebecca Lobo (No. 50), both members of the early 1990s squads, were the first in March 2019. Swin Cash (No. 32) followed in 2022, months after she entered the Hall. Sue Bird (No. 10), Maya Moore (No. 23), Diana Taurasi (No. 3) and Breanna Stewart (No. 30) eventually will join them.

Other players won’t have the same opportunity. Notre Dame, where Ruth Riley won the 2001 Naismith, does not retire jerseys. It inducts players to its Purcell Pavilion Ring of Honor, which includes Skylar Diggins-Smith, Niele Ivey, Kayla McBride, Muffet McGraw and Riley. Diggins-Smith entered months after leaving for the WNBA.

Still more schools, such as Oregon, where 2020 national player of the year Sabrina Ionescu set the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s triple-double record, have no formalized criteria. So she could become the first in a rapidly expanding group of women’s basketball honorees.