Why do certain player choose a particular number

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99goals

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My last post was in reference to how many times a player has changed jersey numbers in their career. This led me to another thought.

1. Why do athletes choose the numbers they choose to wear

2. Secondly, why do YOU choose the jersey number you wear.



I wore 78 for Bruce Smith in football
17 for Wendel Clark in Hockey
1 for soccer --> I played for 9 minutes before I quit for good LOL
no particular choice for Baseball.

There are some obvious reasons why some chose to wear what they wore. I don't know if it is true but I think Lemieux wore 66 because it was 99 upside down.. I have NO clue if this is true and someone told me this.. again, it could be complete BS but fun to hear anyways.

ameet
 
I know that Crosby is 87 because he was born on 8/7/87.

I believe Ovechkin wears number 8 because it was his mother's number when she played basketball for Team Russia.

I would guess that Landeskog wears 92 because he was born in 1992. Nugent-Hopkins may also wear 93 because he was born in 1993.
 
I believe Yzerman wore 19 because of Bryan Trottier. Correct me if i'm wrong.

I also wore number 4 in soccer because thats the only jersey that was left :( Go #4!!!

Anyways, cool post!
 
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I heard at one point during a Columbus pre-game show that Tyutin's number has something to do with his parents birthdays. A combination of what months they were born or some similar. Can't recall exactly what it was.
 
I wore 66 for Lemieux when I played HS Football... Didn't really follow football at the time, so went with what I knew! :)
 
Steve Heinze wore 57 for obvious reasons as does Jordan Tootoo with number 22.

Mark Napier wore 65 as he was a spokesman for Cystic fibrosis.


My best,

Ken
 
I was told Yakupov wears 64 because 6+4=10. He wore 10 in the juniors but 10 is worn by Horcoff currently.

Think Nash wears 61 because that was the number given to him in juniors by the equipment manager. Might have been more to it.
 
intersting, I heard it was in honour of his favorite player, Bure who was number 10, and it added up to 10, perhaps it's a combination of both reasons

punkoholic said:
I was told Yakupov wears 64 because 6+4=10. He wore 10 in the juniors but 10 is worn by Horcoff currently.

Think Nash wears 61 because that was the number given to him in juniors by the equipment manager. Might have been more to it.
Click to expand...
 
Yakapov is in honor of Bure's #10 but since Horcoff has 10, he decided 64.

Nash has 61 because upside down it's 19

punkoholic said:
I was told Yakupov wears 64 because 6+4=10. He wore 10 in the juniors but 10 is worn by Horcoff currently.

Think Nash wears 61 because that was the number given to him in juniors by the equipment manager. Might have been more to it.
Click to expand...
 
Mogilny was 89 which represented the year he defected/escaped from Mother Russia - as well as he was drafted 89th overall so it was a good match.

You asked for personal examples so here are a bunch of mine...

#9 - was 9 for the bulk of my life on the ice, started when I was 9 - that is really all a nine year old needs to pick a number.

#26 & 12 - in baseball I was 26 as I was a huge Wade Boggs fan, on one team there was no 26 so I just went with 12 - that year Boggs signed with the Yankees and wore #12...weird.
 
Gretzky chose 99 because he couldn't get 9 (after Gordie Howe) so he doubled up.

For baseball, I was assigned 27 back in grade five and have used it wherever I've played that required a number.

For football, I chose 56 because of LT...was a good choice at the time. Not so much now.
 
  • lecavalier chose #4 because of his dad/grandfather's love of beliveau and orr
  • del zotto wears #4 for orr
  • yzerman chose #19 because his favourite player is bryan trottier, who also wore #19
  • gretzky's favourite # was 9 but it was already taken so he took 99 instead

i wear #2, 4, or 8 for hockey.



on a side note, i want to know how the staal brothers chose their numbers...
eric - 12, jordan - 11, marc - 18, jared - 22 (?!?!)

and 3 of the 4 are on the hurricanes/or in the system, will marc staal join the team? potentially 11, 12, 13, 14 (currently andreas nodl's #)
 
Found this on Rick Nash....

However, prior to his short two season stay in the OHL, Thericknash was not the #61 we all know him to be today. He was actually lucky #13. I suppose this story always stuck with me because I, too, wore #13 while growing up, if I could get my hands on it, that is. Often the #13 option was mysteriously absent during number selection, and I would have to go for second choice #8. But enough about me, when a fresh faced, 16 year old Rick Nash entered the London Knights organization as a rookie back in 2000, the Hunter brothers, Dale and Mark, forbade him from selecting his usual #13. The Hunters were superstitious and wouldn’t allow any player to play on their team wearing such an unlucky number. Unfortunately for Thericknash, his second choice #16 (with his birthday, June 16th, the likely origin for that one), was taken by veteran OA, Ryan Held, who would later go on to a storied career in the Central League. So, as you may have already guessed, Mr. 61 simply flipped around the digits of his second favourite number. What did you expect? No self-respecting forward would wear #31!

D
 
Triple B said:
Gretzky chose 99 because he couldn't get 9 (after Gordie Howe) so he doubled up.

For baseball, I was assigned 27 back in grade five and have used it wherever I've played that required a number.

For football, I chose 56 because of LT...was a good choice at the time. Not so much now.
Click to expand...

very true about LT :duh::duh::duh:
 
Jagr wears #68 in honor of the Prague Spring rebellion and his grandfather's death, both which occurred in 1968.

For me, i wore several numbers for baseball, #68 for Jagr and #19 for Tony Gwynn when you could choose any number you wanted to. When numbers were (very) limited, #46 cause there weren't many other options, and #8 for Burmistrov/Ovechkin/Prust....unfortunately they didn't have #24, or even #21 or #25, which i found ridiculous.

In football i wore #63 cause it was the closest to #68 lol
 

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