In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to identify and distinguish each player (and sometimes others, such as coaches and officials) from others wearing the same or similar uniforms. The number is typically displayed on the rear of the jersey, often accompanied by the surname. Sometimes it is also displayed on the front and/or sleeves, or on the player's shorts or headgear. It is used to identify the player to officials, other players, official scorers, and spectators; in some sports, it is also indicative of the player's position.
The innovation of player numbers on the back of a football team's jerseys or shirts was first introduced on 8 September 1894 in a rugby union match in Christchurch in New Zealand between provincial sides Taranaki and Canterbury. A team-list card was issued to the spectators as a reference to identify each player by their jersey number.
The first use of jersey numbers is credited to a club football team from New Zealand called the Nelson Football Club, who began wearing numbered jerseys in 1911. The numbers were used to help the spectators identify the players on the field, as well as to help the referee keep track of fouls and other infractions.
The International Federation of Football History and Statistics, an organization of association football historians, traces the origin of numbers to a 1911 association football match in Sydney,Squad numbers on the backs of jerseys (Archive, 4 December 2010) although photographic evidence exists of numbers being used in Australia as early as May 1903 in a Fitzroy v Collingwood Australian rules football match.
Association football
In association football, 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.Así nació la tradición de usar números en las camisetas by Gustavo Farías on La Voz del Interior, 22 August 2013
In South America, Argentina was the first country with numbered shirts. It was during the Scottish team Third Lanark's tour to South America of 1923, they played a friendly match versus a local combined team ("Zona Norte") on 10 June. Both squads were numbered from 1–11, and both goalkeepers wore "1".El número 10, la camiseta que se convirtió en un emblema by Leonardo Peluso on Página/12, 3 February 2018
North America saw its first football match with squad numbers on 30 March 1924, when St. Louis Vesper Buick and Fall River F.C. (winners of St. Louis and American soccer leagues, respectively) played the National Challenge Cup, although only the local team wore numbered shirts.Historia y curiosidades de la numeración fija en el fútbol by Walter Raiño on Clarín, 13 Sep 2017
In England, Arsenal coach Herbert Chapman brought the idea of numbered shirts, worn for the first time when his team played Sheffield Wednesday in 1928. Arsenal wore shirts from 1 to 11 while their rivals' numbered from 12 to 22.¿En qué Mundial empezaron a usarse los números en las camisetas? on DirecTV Sports, 14 June 2018Gunners wear numbered shirts on Arsenal FC Similar numbering criteria were used in the 1933 FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester City. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1939–40 season when the Football League ruled that squads had to wear numbers for each player.The 'most novel cup final in the history of football' By Gareth Thomas on The Football History Boys - April 14, 2020
Numbers were traditionally assigned based on a player's position or reputation on the field, with the starting 11 players wearing 1 to 11, and the substitutes wearing bigger numbers. The goalkeeper would generally wear number 1, then defenders, midfield players and forwards in ascending order.The origins of 'classic' shirt numbering on The Guardian
The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the first FIFA competition to see squad numbers for each players,De 'Nuestro Hirosima' al surgimiento de los números como dorsales by Javier Estepa on Marca but persistent numbers would not be issued until the 1954 World Cup, where each man in a country's 22-man squad wore a specific number from 1 to 22 for the duration of the tournament. After some teams such as Argentina fielded non-goalkeeper players with number 1 (in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups), FIFA ruled that number 1 had to be assigned to a goalkeeper exclusively. That change was first applied in the 1990 World Cup.Alemania 74 a Italia 90 by Edu Casado on 20 Minutos, 17 June 2014Como se asignan los números? The rule is still active for competitions organised by the body.Regulations - 2018 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com
In 1993, England's Football Association switched to persistent squad numbers, abandoning the mandatory use of 1–11 for the starting line-up. The persistent number system became standard in the FA Premier League in the 1993–94 season, with names printed above the numbers. Most European top leagues adopted the system over the next five years.
In addition to "1" being commonly assigned to the starting goalkeeper, it is also common for defenders to wear numbers in the lower single digits, for strikers to wear "7" or "9" or "11", and for a team's central playmaker to wear "10".
It is common for players to change numbers within a club as their career progresses. For example, Cesc Fàbregas was first assigned the number 57 on arrival at Arsenal in 2003. On promotion to the first team squad he was switched to number 15 before inheriting his preferred number 4 following the departure of Patrick Vieira.
Very big numbers, the most common being 88, are often reserved and used as placeholders, when a new player has been signed and played by the manager prior to having a formal squad number. However, in some countries these high numbers are well-used, in some cases because the player's preferred number is already taken or for other reasons. On joining A.C. Milan, Andriy Shevchenko, Ronaldinho and Mathieu Flamini all wore numbers reflecting the year of their birth (76, 80 and 84 respectively), because their preferred numbers were already being worn. In Mexico. Adolfo Bautista famously wore number 100 while playing for Guadalajara.
Australian rules football
Squad numbers first appeared on Australian rules football guernseys when clubs travelled interstate. Players traditionally wear numbers on the backs of their guernseys, although in some competitions, such as the WAFL, may feature teams who wear smaller numbers on the front, usually on one side of the chest.
The number being worn is not relevant to the player's position on the ground, although some clubs will allocate a prestigious number to the team captain - examples include Port Adelaide, who assign number 1, and Richmond, who traditionally allocate number 17 in honour of former captain Jack Dyer. In these situations, it is customary for players who relinquish the captaincy to switch to another number.
AFL clubs generally do not retire numbers, and instead make a ceremony of continuity, featuring retiring champions "passing on" their famous guernsey numbers to chosen successors, usually at a club function or press conference. Prestigious numbers are handed on to highly touted draftees or young up-and-coming players who are shown to have promise and may share certain traits with the previous wearer, such as position or playing style. For example, as of 2010, Michael Hurley inherited the number 18 jumper left vacant by the retired Matthew Lloyd, effectively keeping the number 18 in Essendon's goal-square for another era. Retired numbers include Collingwood's number 42, worn by Darren Millane, who died in a car accident in 1991. Geelong temporarily retired the number 5 between 1998 and 2005 after the retirement of Gary Ablett Sr.
Sons of famous players will often take on their father's number, especially if they play at the same club. Sergio Silvagni and his son Stephen, for example, both wore number 1 for Carlton, with Stephen's son Jack later following suit. Matthew Scarlett wore his father John's number 30 at Geelong. In contrast, some sons of famous players prefer to take on other numbers in the hopes of forging their own identity, and to reduce the burden of having to fulfill high expectations. Notable examples of this are Gary Ablett Jr. at Geelong who wore number 29 and number 4 instead of his father's number 5, and Jobe Watson at Essendon, who passed up Tim's No. 32 in favour of number 4.
The use of numbers higher than 60 is very rare. In 2017 eight indigenous players wore the number 67 as part of the Sir Doug Nicholls' Indigenous Round. This was to recognise the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum confirming the citizenship of Indigenous Australians. Number 65 was worn by Andrew Witts of Collingwood for one game in 1985, before switching to 45 for the remainder of the season. There is an apocryphal story that number 82 was worn by Ernie Taylor of Richmond, in round 10 of 1925 against North Melbourne, but clubs do not have guernseys with numbers that high available for one-off games, and it is more likely this number was number 32 and misread by a local journalist.
Established players will often trade the bigger numbers allocated to rookies for more prestigious lower numbers later in their career. Mal Brown of Claremont in the WAFL demonstrated a blatant disregard for this practice in 1975, trading his normal number 55 for number 100.
Baseball
In baseball, players (and uniquely to baseball, coaches as well) generally wear large numbers on the back of their jersey. Some jerseys may also feature smaller numerals in other locations, such as on the sleeves, pants, or front of the shirt. The purpose of numerals in baseball is to allow for easy identification of players. Some players have been so associated with specific numbers that their jersey number has been officially "retired". The first team to retire a number was the New York Yankees, which retired Lou Gehrig's No. 4 in 1939.
According to common tradition, single-digit numbers are worn by position players but rarely by pitchers, and numbers higher than 60 are rarely worn at all. Bigger numbers are worn during spring training by players whose place on the team is uncertain, and sometimes are worn during the regular season by players recently called up from the minor leagues; however, such players usually change to a more traditional number once it becomes clear that they will stay with the team. However, this tradition is not enforced by any rule,2018 Official Rules on MLB.com and exceptions have never been rare. Moreover, numbers greater than 60 have become much more popular among Major League players since 2010, for a variety of cultural reasons. Examples include stars Kenley Jansen (74), Aaron Judge (99), Luis Robert (88), Josh Hader (71), Nick Anderson (70), Seth Lugo (67), Jose Abreu (79), and Hyun-Jin Ryu (99). At the other end of the number line, Blake Snell (who wears No. 4) in 2018 became the first pitcher wearing a single-digit number to appear in the All-Star Game and the first to win the Cy Young Award.