Retired number

[4] Similarly, the Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic retired number 6 in honor of their fans, the "sixth man".

For instance, in 1987 the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League decided to retire jersey number 7 in honor of Phil Esposito, who had become a star while playing for the team.

On the night of the ceremony honoring Esposito, Bourque took to the ice wearing his normal #7 jersey, which he had worn since breaking into the league in 1979.

For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers have only officially retired three numbers: Ernie Stautner's #70, Joe Greene's #75 and Franco Harris' #32.

Similarly, except for a pair of quarterbacks in the mid-1980s, the Green Bay Packers have not re-issued Paul Hornung's number 5 since he departed from the team following the 1966 season.

[10] 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 and 2016, the Toronto Maple Leafs only retired a player's number if he experienced a career-ending incident while playing for the team.

[14] In 2011, Michigan Wolverines football unretired all of the numbers that it had retired to create legends jerseys worn by its best players.

[17] On December 18, 2017, Kobe Bryant became the only player to have had two numbers (8, 24) retired by the same franchise, Los Angeles Lakers.

[25] Swansea retired the shirt number of Besian Idrizaj after his death from a suspected heart attack.

Manchester City, Lens and Lyon all retired the shirt number of Marc-Vivien Foé after his death on the field in the 2003 Confederations Cup.

These include the Cameroon national team attempting to retire Foé's number,[citation needed] Argentina and the #10 of Diego Maradona, and The Netherlands and the #14 of Johan Cruyff.

1 guernsey prior to the beginning of the 2011 AFL season as the tribute to the fans, according to Max Bailey, the last person to wear the #1 guernsey, had his career cut short by multiple injuries to his right knee, and thanked the fans in his comeback attempts, and the Collingwood Football Club, who retired their No.

NASCAR unofficially retired the number 3 in honour of Dale Earnhardt Sr. after his death on the track at the 2001 Daytona 500.

Following his death, Earnhardt's old team changed to the number 29, and the replacement driver (Kevin Harvick) drove the 29 car through the 2013 season.

In 2021 number 50 was retired in honour of Jason Dupasquier who was killed after an accident at the Mugello Circuit[30] The Formula One World Championship, which has allowed drivers to choose their own number since the 2014 season, retired the use of #17 after the 2015 death of Jules Bianchi from critical injuries sustained in a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Therefore: Until the end of 2024 season, #5 (Sebastian Vettel), #6 (Nicholas Latifi) and #47 (Mick Schumacher) can still be used by the drivers mentioned if they make a comeback.

[36][37] Australian Cricket retired Phillip Hughes' One-Day International shirt number, 64, in remembrance of him, after his death during a match in 2014.

The first recorded example in Rugby League was in May 2015 when Keighley Cougars withdrew number 6 following the death of Danny Jones during a match.

[42] In December 2024, Hull Kingston Rovers announced that the number 6 shirt had been 'unretired' for use by Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel Mikey Lewis from the 2025 season onwards.

[43] In 2014, the Newcastle Knights retired the number 16 jersey for every game from Round 4, following a career-ending neck injury to Alex McKinnon that left him a quadriplegic.

[47] In ceremonies before Germany's opening game of EuroBasket 2022 against France on September 2 in Cologne, the German Basketball Federation retired the #14 that Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki[a] had worn for the men's national team.