On sports teams, numbers are worn on uniforms so that players can easily
be distinguished from one another. But when popular or successful athletes end
their career, their uniform number is often “retired” by their team. This means
that no other player on that team may wear that number ever again.
The first professional sports team to retire a number was the Toronto
Maple Leafs, a Canadian hockey team. They retired Ace Bailey’s
number six in 1934, in honor of his achievements as a player. In 1997, Jackie
Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball, received
a very special honor. His number 42 was retired on every MLB team! Players who
were wearing that number were allowed to keep it. As of the 2011 season, only
one player still wears the number — Mariano Rivera, a
pitcher for the New York Yankees. But in the future, no new MLB players will
ever wear number 42 again.
And in another interesting case, the University of Michigan football team
retired number 48 in honor of a player named Gerald Ford. But they did so
because of his accomplishment after he graduated. Why? Ford became the 38th
president of the United States!
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