List of NCAA football retired numbers

Teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) retire jersey numbers of players who either are considered by the team to have made significant contributions to that team's success, or who have experienced untimely deaths during their playing career. As with other leagues, once a team retires a player's jersey number, it never issues the number to any other player, unless the player or team explicitly allows it.

Pittsburgh Panthers retired numbers at Acrisure Stadium, September 2011

History

Since NCAA teams began retiring numbers, many players have had their jersey number retired. Pittsburgh have the most retired numbers with 10. Unlike professional leagues, no one player has had his number retired by two teams.

Unlike major sports leagues in the United States such as MLB (which retired Jackie Robinson's number 42), the NHL (which did so for Wayne Gretzky's 99), and the NBA (Bill Russell's 6) the NCAA has never retired a jersey number league-wide in honor of anyone.

Nevertheless, there are some cases of retirement of a same number honoring two different players, such as Houston, which retired number 7 worn by David Klingler and Case Keenum, among other similar cases.

Moreover, Michigan retired a number for three players, the #11 in honor of the Wistert brothers.^[1] Brigham Young University (BYU) did the same, retiring number 6 for three different players, Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco, and Luke Staley.^[2]

Since 2005, Syracuse holds the record of players honored with a number retirement after the University retired no. 44 worn by 25 different players between 1921 and 1998.

There are also some strange cases such as UCLA retiring #42 for Jackie Robinson; although he wore No. 28 for the football team; the school chose to retire No. 42 because it was more identified with him after Robinson wore that number throughout his Hall of Fame baseball career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[3][4]

Retired numbers

Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame

Johnny Unitas' #16 was retired by Louisville in 2003

Roger Staubach's #12 was retired by the Naval Academy in 1965

Dan Marino's #13 was retired by Pittsburgh

Brett Favre's #4, retired by Southern Miss in 2015

Troy Aikman's #8, retired by UCLA

John Elway has his #7 retired by Stanford

Peyton Manning's #16 was retired by Tennessee in 2005

Michigan retired #11 in honor of Whitey Wistert (photo) and his two brothers

Doc Blanchard's #35, retired by Army

Colt McCoy's #12, retired by the Texas Longhorns

Gerald Ford with Michigan in 1933. His number 48 was retired by the program

Frank Sinkwich's #21, retired by Georgia

Andre Ware's #11, retired by Houston

Sam Huff's #75 was retired by West Virginia in 2005

Nile Kinnick's #24, retired by Iowa

Howard Cassady's #40 was retired by Ohio State

Missouri retired #23 in honor of Roger Wehrli (photo) and Johnny Roland

Steve Largent has his #83 retired by Tulsa

Joe Greene's #75, retired by North Texas

Bill Dudley's #35 was retired by Virginia

Elroy Hirsch's #40 was retired by Wisconsin in 2005

John Mackey's #88, retired by Syracuse

Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired across all UCLA sports in 2014

Randall Cunningham's #17, the only number retired by UNLV

Jan Stenerud's #78 was retired by Montana State

Eddie LeBaron's #40 was retired by Pacific

Kyle Arrington's #24, retired by Hofstra

Frank Beamers's #25 was retired by Virginia Tech in 2002

Team	No.	Player	Tenure	No. retired	Ref.
Akron	89	Chris Angeloff[n 1]	1974–1975	1975	[5]
Alabama A&M	22	John Stallworth	1971–1974	1974	[6]
	55	Robert Mathis	1999–2002	2012	[7]
Appalachian State	14	Armanti Edwards	2006–2009	2023	[8]
	23	John Settle	1983–1986	1986	[9]
	32	Dexter Coakley	1993–1996	2005	[10]
	38	Dino Hackett	1982–1985	2005	[11]
	71	Larry Hand	1960–1964	2006	[12]
Arizona State	11	Danny White	1971–1973		[13]
	27	Bobby Mulgado	1954–1957		[13]
	33	Wilford White	1947–1950
	40	Mike Haynes	1971–1975		[13]
	42	Pat Tillman[n 1]	1994–1997	2004	[13]
Arkansas	12	Clyde Scott	1946–1949	1949	[14]
	77	Brandon Burlsworth[n 1]	1994–1998	1999	[14]
Army	24	Pete Dawkins	1956–1958	2008	[15][16]
	35	Doc Blanchard	1944–1946	2009	[16]
	41	Glenn Davis	1943–1946	2005	[16]
	61	Joe Steffy	1945–1947	2009	[16]
Auburn	7	Pat Sullivan	1969–1971		[17]
	34	Bo Jackson	1982–1985		[17]
	88	Terry Beasley	1969–1971		[17]
Austin Peay	30	John Ogles	1963–1966		[18]
	84	Harold Roberts	1967–1970		[18]
Boise State	12	Jim McMillan	1971–1974	1978	[19]
Boston College	22	Doug Flutie	1981–1984		[20]
	68	Mike Ruth	1982–1985		[20]
Bowling Green	29	Paul Miles	1970–1973		[21]
BYU	6	Marc Wilson	1975–1979	2017	[22]
	6	Robbie Bosco	1981–1985	2017	[22]
		Luke Staley	1999–2001	2017	[22]
	8	Steve Young	1980–1983	2003	[22]
	9	Jim McMahon	1977–1981	2014	[22]
	14	Gifford Nielsen	1973–1977	2007	[22]
	14	Ty Detmer	1987–1991	2007	[22]
	40	Eldon Fortie	1960–1962	1963	[22]
	81	Marion Probert [n 1]	1952–1954	1977	[22]
California	12	Joe Roth[n 1]	1975–1976	1977	[23]
Central Michigan	62	Jim Podoley	1952–1956		[24]
Clemson	4	Steve Fuller [n 2]	1975–1978	1979	[25]
	28	C. J. Spiller [n 3]	2006–2009	2010	[26]
	66	Banks McFadden	1937–1939	1987	[27]
Colorado	2	Shedeur Sanders	2023–2024	2025	[28]
	11	Bobby Anderson [n 4]	1967–1969	1969	[34]
	12	Travis Hunter	2023–2024	2025	[28]
	19	Rashaan Salaam[n 1]	1992–1994	2017	[34]
	24	Byron White[n 4]	1935–1937	1937	[34]
	67	Joe Romig[n 4]	1959–1961	1961	[34]
Colorado State	21	Eddie Hanna [n 1]	1947–1949	1949	[35]
	48	Thurman McGraw	1946–1949		[36]
Drake	43	Johnny Bright [n 5]	1949–1951	2006	[39]
East Carolina	16	Robert Farris [n 1]	1965–1967		[40]
	18	Norman Swindell [n 1]	1963–1965		[40]
	29	James Speight	1955–1959		[40]
	36	Roger Thrift	1949–1950		[40]
Eastern Illinois	17	Tony Romo	1999–2002	2009	[41]
	18	Sean Payton	1983–1986	2010	[42]
Eastern Washington	71	Michael Roos	2001–2004	2009	[43]
	84	Bob Picard	1968–1969, 1971–1972	2003	[43]
Fresno State	4	Derek Carr	2009–2013	2017	[44]
	8	David Carr	1997–2001	2007	[44]
	9	Kevin Sweeney	1983–1986		[44]
	12	Trent Dilfer	1991–1993		[44]
	14	Vince Petrucci	1976–1978		[44]
	15	Davante Adams	2011–2013	2022	[44]
	21	Dale Messer	1958–1960		[44]
	22	Lorenzo Neal	1990–1992	2022	[44]
	83	Henry Ellard	1979–1982		[44]
Georgia	21	Frank Sinkwich	1941–1943	1943	[45]
	34	Herschel Walker	1980–1982	1985	[45]
	40	Theron Sapp	1955–1958	1959	[45]
	62	Charley Trippi	1942, 1945–1946	1947	[45]
Georgia Southern	3	Adrian Peterson	1998–2001		[46]
	8	Tracy Ham	1982–1986		[47]
Hawaii	15	Colt Brennan	2005–2007	2021	[48]
	32	Tom Kaulukukui	1934–1937		[49]
Hofstra
	3	Wayne Chrebet	1991–1994		[50]
	33	Walter Kohanowich	1948–1952		[50]
	74	Dave Fiore	1992–1995		[50]
	77	John Schmitt	1961–1963		[50]
	89	Marques Colston	2001–2005		[50]
Houston	7	David Klingler	1988–1991	2016	[51]
		Case Keenum	2006–2011	2016	[51]
	11	Andre Ware	1987–1989		[51]
	78	Wilson Whitley	1972–1976		[51]
Idaho	9	Ken Hobart	1980–1983		[52]
	17	John Friesz	1986–1989	2006	[53]
	53	Wayne Walker	1955–1957		[54]
	56	John Yarno	1973–1976	1977	[55]
	64	Jerry Kramer	1955–1957	1963	[56][57]
Idaho State	41	Jared Allen	2000–2003		[58]
Illinois	50	Dick Butkus	1962–1964	2003	[59][60]
	77	Red Grange	1923–1925	2003	[59]
Iowa	24	Nile Kinnick [n 6]	1936–1939		[62]
	62	Cal Jones	1952–1955		[62]
Iowa State	30	Mike Cox	1963–1964	1964	[63]
Indiana	32	Anthony Thompson	1986–1989		[64]
Kansas	21	John Hadl	1959–1961		[65][66]
	42	Ray Evans [n 7]	1941–1942, 1946–1947		[65][67]
	48	Gale Sayers	1962–1964	1989	[65][68]´
Kansas State	11	Lynn Dickey	1968–1970		[69]
		Steve Grogan	1972–1974		[69]
Kent State	9	Josh Cribbs	2001–2004	2010	[70]
	40	Eric Wilkerson	1985–1988		[71]
	79	Jim Corrigall	1967–1969	1969	[72]
	99	Jack Lambert	1971–1973	1977	[73]
Kentucky	21	Calvin Bird	1958–1960	1997	[74]
	22	Mark Higgs	1984–1987	1997	[74]
Lafayette	53	Fred Kirby	1939–1941	2011	[75]
Liberty[n 8]	23	Rashad Jennings	2006–2008	2020	[77]
	71	Jerry Falwell[n 9]	—	2006	[76]
	83	Kelvin Edwards	1982–1985	2019	[78]
	86	Eric Green	1985–1989	2008	[76]
Lincoln (MO)	20	Lemar Parrish	1966–1969		[79]
Louisville	8	Lamar Jackson	2015–2017	2021	[80]
	16	Johnny Unitas	1951–1955	2003	[81]
LSU	20	Billy Cannon	1957–1959	1960	[82]
	21	Jerry Stovall	1960–1962	2018	[83]
	37	Tommy Casanova	1969–1971	2009	[84]
Marshall	72	Frank Gatski	1940–1941	2005	[85]
Miami (FL)	10	George Mira	1961–1963	1997	[86]
	14	Vinny Testaverde	1982–1986	1997	[86]
	42	Jim Dooley	1949–1951	1997	[86]
	89	Ted Hendricks	1966–1968	1997	[86]
Miami (OH)	7	Ben Roethlisberger	2000–2003	2007	[87][88]
	40	Bob Hitchens	1971–1973		[87][89][88]
	42	John Pont	1949–1951		[87][88]
Memphis	8	Charles Greenhill	1983		[90]
	20	DeAngelo Williams	2002–2005		[90]
	30	Dave Casinelli	1960–1963		[90]
	59	Danton Barto	1990–1993	2021	[90]
	64	John Bramlett	1959–1962		[90]
	79	Harry Schuh	1962–1964		[90]
	83	Isaac Bruce	1992–1993		[90]
Michigan	11	Whitey Wistert	1931–1933	1949	[91]
	11	Al Wistert	1940–1942	1949	[91]
	11	Alvin Wistert	1947–1949	1949	[91]
	21	Desmond Howard	1989–1991	2015	[91]
	47	Bennie Oosterbaan	1925–1927	1927	[91]
	48	Gerald Ford	1932–1934	1994	[91]
	87	Ron Kramer	1954–1956	1956	[91]
	98	Tom Harmon	1938–1940	1940	[91]
Michigan State	26	Clinton Jones	1964–1966	2015	[92]
	46	John Hannah [n 10]	—	1969	[96]
	48	Percy Snow	1986–1989	2013
	78	Don Coleman	1949–1951	1951	[96]
	90	George Webster	1964–1966	1967	[96]
	95	Bubba Smith	1964–1966	2006	[96]
Middle Tennessee	14	Teddy Morris	1962–1965	1965	[97]
	20	Kevin Byard	2012–2015	2022	[98][99]
Minnesota	10	Paul Giel	1951–1953	1991	[100][101][102]
	54	Bruce Smith	1939–1941	1977	[100][101][102]
	72	Bronko Nagurski	1927–1929	1979	[100][101][102]
Mississippi Valley State	18	Parnell Dickinson	1972–1975	1976	[103][104]
Missouri	23	Johnny Roland	1962, 1964–1965		[105]
	23	Roger Wehrli	1966–1968		[105]
	27	Brock Olivo	1994–1997		[105]
	37	Bob Steuber	1940–1943		[105]
	42	Darold Jenkins	1939–1941		[105]
	44	Paul Christman	1938–1940		[105]
	83	Kellen Winslow	1975–1978		[105]
Missouri Southern	9	Rod Smith	1988–1993		[106]
Montana	15	Dave Dickenson	1992–1995		[107][108]
	22	Terry Dillon	1960–1962		[107][109]
Montana State	21	Don Hass	1964–1966		[110]
	52	Sonny Holland	1956–1959	1959	[111]
	77	Bill Kollar	1971–1973		[112]
	78	Jan Stenerud	1963–1965	1984	[113]
Murray State	10	Larry Tillman	1966–1969	1969	[114]
	11	Michael Proctor	1986–1989	1993	[114]
Navy	12	Roger Staubach	1961–1963	1965	[115][116]
	19	Keenan Reynolds	2012–2015	2016	[115][116]
	27	Joe Bellino	1958–1960	1960	[115][116][117]
	30	Napoleon McCallum	1981–1985		[115][116][118]
NC State	17	Philip Rivers	2000–2003	2003	[119][120]
	18	Roman Gabriel	1958–1961	1962	[119][120]
	23	Ted Brown	1975–1978	1978	[119][120]
	40	Dick Christy	1954–1957	1997	[119][120]
	51	Jim Ritcher	1976–1979	1987	[119][120]
	63	Bill Yoest	1970–1973	2003	[119][120]
	77	Dennis Byrd	1964–1967		[119][120]
	81	Torry Holt	1995–1998	1999	[119][120]
Nebraska	60	Tom Novak	1946–1949	1949
	64	Bob Brown	1961–1963	2004
Nevada	27	Frank Hawkins	1977–1980		[121]
	41	Marion Motley	1940–1942		[121]
New Mexico
	42	Bobby Santiago[n 11]	1959–1962		[124]
	43	Don Perkins	1957–1959		[125]
	44	Brian Urlacher[n 11]	1996–1999	2013	[126]
North Carolina	22	Charlie Justice	1946–1949		[127]
	46	Bill Sutherland [n 1]	1946		[127]
	50	Art Weiner	1946–1949		[127]
	59	Andy Bershak	1935–1937		[127]
	99	George Barclay	1932–1934		[127]
North Texas	28	Abner Haynes	1957–1959		[128]
	33	Ray Renfro	1949–1950	2000	[128]
	55	Richard Gill	1968–1969	1971	[128]
	75	Joe Greene	1966–1969	1981	[128]
Ohio State	22	Les Horvath	1940–1942, 1944	2000	[129][130]
	27	Eddie George	1992–1995	2001	[130]
	31	Vic Janowicz	1949–1951	2000	[131][130]
	40	Howard Cassady	1952–1955	2000	[130]
	45	Archie Griffin	1972–1975	1999	[130]
	47	Chic Harley	1916–1917, 1919	2004	[130]
	99	Bill Willis[n 12]	1942–1944	2007	[130]
Oklahoma State	21	Barry Sanders	1986–1988		[134]
	34	Thurman Thomas	1984–1987		[134]
	43	Terry Miller	1974–1977		[134]
	55	Bob Fenimore	1943–1946		[135]
Ole Miss	10	Eli Manning	1999–2003	2021	[136][137][138]
	18	Archie Manning	1968–1970		[136]
	38	Chucky Mullins[n 13]	1988–1989		[136]
	74	Ben Williams[n 14]	1972–1975	2022	[139]
Oregon State	11	Terry Baker	1959–1962		[140]
Penn State	22	John Cappelletti	1970–1973	2013	[141]
Pacific	22	Dick Bass	1955–1958	1984	[142]
	39	Willard Harrell	1971–1974	1986	[142]
	40	Eddie LeBaron	1946–1949	1950	[142]
	41	Eddie Macon	1949–1951	2008	[142]
Pittsburgh	1	Larry Fitzgerald	2002–2003	2013	[143]
	13	Dan Marino	1979–1982	1983	[143]
	33	Tony Dorsett	1973–1976	1976	[143]
	42	Marshall Goldberg	1936–1938	1997	[143]
	65	Joe Schmidt	1950–1952	1997	[143]
	73	Mark May	1977–1980	2001	[143]
	75	Jim Covert	1979–1983	2015	[144]
	79	Bill Fralic	1981–1984	1984	[143]
	89	Mike Ditka	1958–1960	1997	[143]
	99	Hugh Green	1977–1980	1980	[143]
Portland State	11	Neil Lomax	1977–1980		[145]
	18	Peter Stott	1990–1992	2014	[146]
Rhode Island	12	Tom Ehrhardt	1983–1985	1996	[147]
Rutgers	52	Eric LeGrand	2008–2010	2013	[148]
San Diego State	8	Todd Santos	1984–1987		[149]
	25	Haven Moses	1966–1967		[149]
	28	Willie Buchanon	1970–1971		[149]
	28	Marshall Faulk	1991–1993		[149]
San José State	52	Dave Chaney	1970–1972	2019	[150]
Savannah State	2	Shannon Sharpe	1986–1989	2009	[151]
South Carolina	2	Sterling Sharpe	1983, 1985–1987		[152]
	37	Steve Wadiak	1948–1951		[152]
	38	George Rogers	1977–1980		[152]
	56	Mike Johnson	1964		[152]
Southeast Missouri State	67	Mike Wood	1974–1977	1978	[153]
Southern Miss	4	Brett Favre	1987–1990	2015	[154][155]
	10	Reggie Collier	1980–1982	2008	[156]
	44	Ray Guy	1970–1972		[157]
Stanford	1	Ernie Nevers	1921–1924		[158]
	7	John Elway	1979–1982	2013	[158][159]
	16	Jim Plunkett	1968–1970		[158]
Syracuse	5	Donovan McNabb	1995–1998	2013	[160]
	9	Don McPherson	1984–1987	2013	[160]
	39	Larry Csonka	1965–1967	2007	[160]
	44	(various)[n 15]	1921–1998	2005	[160]
	47	Joe Morris	1978–1981	2018	[160]
	72	Tim Green	1982–1986	2019	[161]
	88	John Mackey	1960–1962	2007	[160]
TCU	5	LaDainian Tomlinson	1997–2000	2005	[162]
	8	Davey O'Brien	1935–1938	1939	[163][164]
	45	Sammy Baugh	1934–1936	1993	[164]
Tennessee	16	Peyton Manning	1995–1997	2005	[165][166]
	32	Billy Nowling [n 16]	1940–1942	1946	[165]
	45	Johnny Majors	1954–1956	2012	[167]
	49	Rudy Klarer [n 16]	1941–1942	1946	[165]
	61	Willis Tucker [n 16]	1939–1940	1946	[165]
	62	Clyde Fuson [n 16]	1942	1946	[165]
	91	Doug Atkins	1950–1952	2005	[165][166]
	92	Reggie White	1980–1983	2005	[165][169]
Texas	10	Vince Young	2003–2005		[170]
	12	Colt McCoy	2006–2009		[170]
	20	Earl Campbell	1974–1977		[170]
	22	Bobby Layne	1944–1947		[170]
	34	Ricky Williams	1995–1998		[170]
	60	Tommy Nobis	1963–1965		[170]
Texas Tech	44	Donny Anderson	1963–1965		[171]
	55	E. J. Holub	1958–1960	1960	[172]
	81	Dave Parks	1961–1963		[173]
Toledo	16	Chuck Ealey	1969–1971		[174]
	18	Gene Swick	1972–1975		[174]
	82	Mel Triplett	1951–1954		[174]
	77	Mel Long	1969–1971		[174]
Tulsa	14	Billy Anderson	1963–1964 [n 17]	1995	[176]
	17	Jerry Rhome	1963–1964		[176]
	31	Ellis Jones	1942–1944		[176]
	36	Felto Prewitt	1943–1945		[176]
	45	Glenn Dobbs	1940–1942		[176][177]
	55	Jerry Ostroski	1988–1991	2018	[176][178]
	64	Marv Matuszak	1952		[176]
	81	Howard Twilley	1963–1965		[176]
	83	Steve Largent	1972–1975	2008	[176]
UCLA	5	Kenny Easley	1978–1980		[179]
	8	Troy Aikman	1986–1988	2014	[179]
	13	Kenny Washington	1937–1939	1956	[179]
	16	Gary Beban	1965–1967		[179]
	34	Paul Cameron	1951–1953		[179]
	38	Burr Baldwin	1944–1946		[179]
	42	Jackie Robinson [n 18][n 19]	1939–1940	2014	[3][4]
	79	Jonathan Ogden	1993–1995	1997	[179]
	80	Donn Moomaw	1950–1952		[179]
	84	Jerry Robinson	1976–1978		[180][179]
UNLV	12	Randall Cunningham	1981–1984	1984	[181]
USC	3	Carson Palmer	1999–2002	2002	[182]
	5	Reggie Bush	2003–2005	2024	[183]
	11	Matt Leinart	2001–2005	2004	[182]
	12	Charles White	1977–1979	1979	[182]
	13	Caleb Williams	2022–2023	2024	[183]
	20	Mike Garrett	1963–1965	1965	[182]
	32	O. J. Simpson	1967–1968	1968	[182]
	33	Marcus Allen	1978–1981	1981	[182]
Utah	22	Ty Jordan [n 1]	2020	2021	[184]
		Aaron Lowe [n 1]	2019–2021	2021	[184]
Virginia	12	Shawn Moore	1988–1990		[185]
	24	Frank Quayle	1966–1968		[185]
	35	Bill Dudley	1940–1942		[185]
	48	Joe Palumbo	1949–1951		[185]
	73	Jim Dombrowski	1982–1985		[185]
	97	Gene Edmonds [n 1]	1948–1949		[185]
Virginia Tech	10	Frank Loria	1965–1967	1971	[186]
	25	Frank Beamer	1966–1968	2002	[186]
	73	Jim Pyne	1990–1993	1994	[186]
	78	Bruce Smith	1981–1984	1985	[186]
	84	Carroll Dale	1956–1959	1960	[186]
Washington State
	7	Mel Hein	1927–1931		[187][188]
	14	Jack Thompson	1974–1978		[187][188]
Weber State	10	Jamie Martin	1989–1992	2014	[189][190]
West Virginia
	9	Major Harris	1987–1989	2021	[191]
	21	Ira Rodgers	1915–1917, 1919	2010	[192]
	75	Sam Huff	1952–1955	2005	[192]
	77	Bruce Bosley	1952–1955	2016	[192]
	90	Darryl Talley	1979–1982	2021	[193]
Western Michigan	44	Jerome Persell	1975–1978	1978
	49	John Offerdahl	1982–1985	1995	[194]
Wisconsin
	33	Ron Dayne	1996–1999	2007	[195]
	35	Alan Ameche	1951–1954	2000	[195][196]
	40	Elroy Hirsch	1941–1942	2005	[197][195]
	80	Dave Schreiner	1939–1942	2005	[197][195]
	83	Allan Shafer [n 1]	1944	2005	[198][197]
	88	Pat Richter	1960–1962	2006	[197][195]

See also

• List of NFL retired numbers

Notes

1. Posthumous honor.
2. The number was brought out of retirement in 2014 to be worn by quarterback Deshaun Watson, with Fuller's permission.^[25]
3. In 2016, Spiller gave his permission to bring the number out of retirement to be worn by Tavien Feaster.^[26]
4. In 2020, Colorado athletic director Rick George announced plans to re-issue uniform numbers 11, 24, and 67 with the support of the noted players (or their families).^[29] Contemporary uniforms issued with those numbers will include a commemorative patch.^[29] Nonetheless, as of 2023 season, no player has used any of those numbers since the announcement.^{[30][31][32][33]} Uniform number 19 will remain unused for 19 years, after which it may be re-issued.^[29]
5. Bright is regarded as the greatest football player ever at Drake.^[37][38] At the institution, Bright also competed in basketball and track.
6. Kinnick died during a training flight while serving as a United States Navy aviator in World War II.^[61]
7. Evans also has his #15 retired from the Kansas basketball team, being the only athlete in the history of the program to have such honor.^[67]
8. Liberty also retired "HC" in honor of Sam Rutigliano, who served as the head football coach from 1989 to 1999. It is not a number, so no player is able to wear it even is officially retired.^[76]
9. Falwell never played for the football program, but he founded the university in 1971. As such, a "71" jersey was hung over the press box suite, with the number being retired across all Liberty sports teams.^[76]
10. Hannah was not a player, but gave Michigan State University 46 years of service, 28 of them as president of the institution.^[93] He is also the longest-serving president of MSU, being in office from 1941 to 1969.^[94][95]
11. Although the No. 42 and 44 were brought out of retirement briefly in the 2021 season, they have been retired again and currently no players wear them.^[122][123]
12. In 2020, the NCAA approved the use of the No. 0.^[132] In order to further pay tribute to Bill Willis, Coach Day decided to start a new tradition and choose the player who will wear the number each season.^[133]
13. Retired from football after a severe injury lefy him a quadriplegic during a game against Vanderbilt in 1989.
14. Regarded as the first black player in the program's history.
15. The complete list of players who wore number 44, by chronological order: Gifford Zimmerman, Charles Roberts, Clarence Taylor, Don Baldwin, Richard Fishel, Henry Merz, Hamilton Watt, Francis Mullins, Stanley Stanislay, Benjamin DeYoung, Francis Mazejko, Richard Ransom, J. O'Brien, Robert Eberling, Jim Brown, Thomas Stephens, Ernie Davis, William Schoonover, Floyd Little, Richard Panczyszyn, Mandel Robinson, Glenn Moore, Michael Owens, Terry Richardson, and Rob Konrad.
16. Died in service during World War II. They were honored as "Vol Legends" prior to the game vs. Air Force on Sep 9, 2006.^[168]
17. He had previously played for SMU Mustangs (1960–1961).^[175]
18. As a UCLA football player, Robinson wore No. 28; however, the school chose to retire No. 42, which became indelibly identified with him because it was the number he wore throughout his Hall of Fame baseball career with the Brooklyn Dodgers: this included him being the first African American player in the modern era of professional baseball.^[3]
19. Retired across all UCLA sports on November 22, 2014. Kenny Young, a linebacker who wore No. 42 as a freshman in the 2014 season, was allowed to continue wearing the number for the remainder of his UCLA career.^[4]