Retired Numbers

[mred]

The four players with retired jerseys ALL left ISU as the school's all-time leading scorer, and Olson was the only one who didn't leave as the all-time leading rebounder (she was second to Burns).

Fun fact: When Burns was done at ISU, she was the all-time leading scorer by more than 500 points.

 

[savepolarbears]

Here's the data:

Tonya Burns: finished in 85, retired in 85 (I believe; based on this: Tonya Burns-Cohrs | Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame)
Jayme Olson: finished in 98, retired in 04
Megan Taylor: finished in 01, retired in 04
Angie Welle: finished in 02, retired in 10

With as long as it took to retire Welle's jersey, it seems to me that they likely decided to wait longer to fully assess a player's contributions prior to retirement even though she was a no-brainer. I'd expect this kind of wait going forward.

One point of comparison: KSU retired Lehning's jersey during her last home game as a senior.

Whew, finally able to contribute again! Don't ever switch computers and lose your password for this forum, just a warning.

Someone asked at BF lunch last year, and he said there is a process, he was vague about it, just that he gave his feedback on candidates, and one should be coming sooner than later. I personally would vote for "4", and have Stacy and Alison both come back to be honored.

 

[TedKumsher]

I think the only true requirement is an ISU degree.

Things that help:
1) Time. Gotta be at least -- what -- a decade? since leaving ISU.
2) Basketball success after ISU. This is almost required for the men, but it can be relevant for the women.
3) College accolades. Of course, we probably wouldn't talk about retiring someone's jersey if they *didn't* get all-big 12 at a minimum and all-American consideration.
4) Multiple year team success.
5) Multiple year individual success at ISU. Hard to get consideration if you were great for "only" 1 year and average for 3 years.
6) Fan favorite.
7) No scandals before, during, or after ISU.


In the end, I think it generally comes down to:

1) ISU degree.
2) 80% (90%?) of people think the person (still) deserves it 10 years after they leave. After all -- it's really about the fans. Who they think stands above the rest.