What is the most iconic jersey number of all-time? Find out what voters had to say
Is No. 24 the most iconic jersey number in all of sports?
Each sport individually has a number or short list of numbers that shines above all others. However, what happens when you consider them all (including race cars).
We recently held a bracketed vote to determine which out of 16 numbers was the most iconic.
I first polled 13 journalists from throughout our USA Today Florida Sports Network, and by ranking and assigning points to their submissions, we came up with the number 23.
Michael Jordan is the standard bearer, but these great athletes also donned the No. 23: Ryne Sandberg, LeBron James, Draymond Green, Devin Hester, Kirk Gibson, Don Mattingly, David Beckham and Christian McCaffrey.
However, the fans felt differently.
No. 23 was eliminated in the round of 8 by the No. 7 (Mickey Mantle, among others). That same round saw No. 3 (Babe Ruth) and No. 12 (Tom Brady) eliminated.
We received tens of thousands of votes over the course of the tournament, and No. 24 came out on top, overcoming No. 44 in the final with 71 percent of the vote.
Here are some of the athletes most associated with those numbers: Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr, Jeff Gordon, Barry Bonds, Miguel Cabrera, Rickey Henderson, Kobe Bryant, Rick Barry, Manny Ramirez, Moses Malone, Charles Woodson, Darrelle Revis and Marshawn Lynch.
Have you ever wondered where jersey numbers came from?
That’s a little hard to pin down exactly, but based on historical research, college football may have been first, at least in the U.S.
According to journalist Matt DeLaere, college football teams were wearing numbered jerseys as far back as 1908.
The NCAA cites Washington & Jefferson College as the first team to don the digits, but the University of Pittsburgh claims that it was first (earlier in 1908). By the time the American Professional Football Association (now the NFL) came into being in 1920, all member teams wore numbers.
According to a historical article at packers.com, the NFL has used uniform numbers since its inception in 1920; through the 1940s, there was no standard numbering system, and teams were free to number their players however they wanted.
An informal tradition had arisen by that point that was similar to the modern system; when the All-America Football Conference, which used a radically different numbering scheme, merged with the NFL in 1950, the resulting confusion forced the merged league to impose a mandatory system of assignment of jersey numbers in 1952. This system was updated and made more rigid in 1973, and has been modified slightly since then.
Baseball wasn't first to have jersey numbers
In the early years, teams did not wear uniform numbers.
According to Majors League Baseball, teams experimented with uniform numbers during the first two decades of the 20th century, with the first Major League team to use them being the 1916 Cleveland Indians, which used them on their left sleeves for a few weeks before abandoning the experiment.
Again in 1923, the St. Louis Cardinals tried out uniforms with small numbers on the sleeves, but the players did not like them, and they were removed.
For the 1929 Major League Baseball season, both the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians put numbers on their jerseys, the first two teams to do so, beginning a trend that was completed by 1937, when the Philadelphia Athletics became the last team to permanently add numbers to their jerseys.
The first team to retire a number was the New York Yankees, which retired Lou Gehrig's No. 4 in 1939.
Soccer wasn't first to have jersey numbers
According to author Michael Millar, the first record of numbered jerseys date back to 1911, with Australian teams Sydney Leichhardt and HMS Powerful being the first to use squad numbers on their backs.
One year later, numbering in football was mandated in New South Wales.
How about hockey?
Journalist Matt DeLaere says in hockey there’s some debate as to who had jersey number first.
The first group to use numbers on ice hockey uniforms isn't clear. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association is sometimes credited with being the first to use numbered sweaters, but the National Hockey Association, the predecessor of the National Hockey League, is known to have required its players to wear numbered armbands beginning with the 1911–12 season, which may have come before that.
There you have it. I bet when you cast your vote for your favorite number, you never would have guessed it could lead to a historical journey down Jersey Lane.
Whichever your favorite, wear it proudly. Thanks for participating.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Fan vote determines most iconic sports jersey number, but do you agree?
