Kentucky Wildcats: Jersey Retirements are a Sacred Honor

When it comes to the Kentucky Wildcats and the jerseys hanging on the rafters, jersey retirement ceremonies should not be allowed for those players who stayed for one season.

Over the weekend, Mark Story wrote a column on the subject of jersey retirements and whether one-and-done players should be honored. This begs the question–are we honoring them for their work in a Kentucky uniform or their professional career? There have been numerous one-and-done players to suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats over the last few seasons but to me, that just doesn’t cut it. Rupp Arena would be out of room for jerseys if they were honored.

As I look over the last few years since John Calipari arrived, there are a few players who stand out as being worthy of seeing their jersey retired some day in the near future: Patrick Patterson and Willie Cauley-Stein.

Anthony Davis is a special player, don’t get me wrong. What he did while playing for a single season at the University of Kentucky is one of those amazing things but he only did it for a single season and that’s it. When it comes to seeing your name and jersey hanging in the rafters of Rupp Arena, the honor should only go to those players who put in three or four seasons of work while playing for the Kentucky Wildcats.

I look at it the same way as I do with the retiring of baseball jerseys in the Major Leagues. You don’t retire the jersey number of Hall of Famer that only played two or three seasons with one team when they put in ten years or more with another team.

As a freshman in 2011-2012, Anthony Davis was named as the recipient of a number of national Player of the Year honors including the Oscar Robertson Trophy, John R. Wooden Award, 2012 Sporting News Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year, Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year, and Naismith College Player of the Year.

We all know the criteria for jersey retirements–players must first be elected into the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame. Honoring one-and-done players with a retired jersey just would not be fair to all those guys who gave three or four years of their life to wear the blue and white.