Past communications with Plonksy: Me: Hey, they've got a Kevin Durant banner up in the Erwin Center and he was only here for 1 year. Why can't we have someone like Kamie Ethridge up there? Plonsky: We do not retire the jerseys of female players Me: Why not? Plonsky: There's no process for it Me: Why not apply the same process that you do for men? Plonsky: That's not the same thing Me: [my inside voice - you just don't want to piss off Deloss Dodds and lose your job] Introducing Chris DelConte! And in quick order, what wasn't possible suddenly is: After the first jersey retirement was announced Plonksy said, "Now that we have an appropriate place, a Hall of Honor, to correctly honor them, we can start retiring women's jerseys" [Pfffftttttt]
That's just idiotic, and I actually like the idea of not retiring jerseys. If Plonsky gave a philosophical answer about why we don't do that, that'd be one thing (and there'd be a good chance I'd agree with it), but acting like it's all the fault of a lack of process and there's nothing that can be done is ludicrous. If you wanted a process, you'd create one.
I like the idea of honoring a great player by hanging their jersey, but retiring the number so that it can never be worn again I don't like.
I agree that retiring jersey numbers is not a good idea. In football, they simply say, "Hey superstar player would really like to use your retired jersey number. You okay with that?" And the older player is usually thrilled to be asked and says "yes". A banner or some sort of honor on the field or in the rafters should be fine.
