31 (number) - in Sports

In Sports

The jersey number 31 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats:

  • In Major League Baseball:
    • The San Diego Padres, for Dave Winfield.
    • The Chicago Cubs, for Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux.
    • The Atlanta Braves, also for Maddux.
  • In the NBA:
    • The Boston Celtics, for Cedric Maxwell.
    • The Indiana Pacers, for Reggie Miller.
  • In the NHL:
    • The Edmonton Oilers, for Grant Fuhr.
    • The New York Islanders, for Billy Smith.
  • In the NFL:
    • The Atlanta Falcons, for William Andrews.
    • The New Orleans Saints, for Jim Taylor.

NASCAR driver Jeff Burton drives #31, a car which was subject to a controversy when one of the sponsors changed its name after merging with another company.

In ice hockey goaltenders often wear the number 31.

In football the number 31 has been retired by Queens Park Rangers F.C. in memory of Ray Jones (footballer born 1988)

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Famous quotes containing the word sports:

    “Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
    —Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    “Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
    —Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)