The retiring of specific jersey numbers to remember legendary players and coaches is a time-honored tradition among many different sports, but the practice has a special place in football and basketball. At Iowa State, the numbers of seven men and three women are hanging in the rafters of Hilton Coliseum to honor the program’s greatest players. However, the football program has no such system of honoring its own program legends.
Completely retiring a number so it may never be worn again is somewhat rare in college football, mainly due to the fact that football roster sizes are so large, and there are only 99 numbers to go around.