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The men's college basketball program of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was founded in 1920 and is known competitively as the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins have won 11 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Division I Basketball Championships, the most of any school. UCLA players have been assigned jersey numbers ranging from 0 to 78 in the team's history. The school no longer issues 10 retired numbers in honor of former players. To qualify, a player must have been a three-time consensus All-American, a consensus national player of the year, or been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The retired numbers are displayed in the rafters of the Bruins' home arena, Pauley Pavilion. UCLA's legendary coach John Wooden generally opposed having numbers retired.
History
Numbers retired by UCLA were originally limited to three-time consensus All-Americans. In 1990, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known as Lew Alcindor during his UCLA career, and Bill Walton were the first to have their numbers retired. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Pauley Pavilion. Wooden valued team play over individual accolades, and he opposed retiring numbers. "What about the fellows who wore that number before?" Wooden asked. "Didn't they contribute to the team?" Wooden did think highly of Abdul-Jabbar and Walton. "If such a thing can be deserved, it'd be Alcindor and Walton. But I don't think it would be anyone else," said Wooden.
UCLA in 1996 expanded the requirements for retiring numbers to include players who were consensus national players of the year. This allowed the jersey numbers of Walt Hazzard (No. 42), Sidney Wicks (35), Marques Johnson (54) and Ed O'Bannon (31) to be retired. In 2004, UCLA also allowed players inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame to be eligible, enabling the retirement of Gail Goodrich's No. 25. Three Bruins were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012, and UCLA retired their numbers in 2013—Jamaal Wilkes (52), Reggie Miller (31), and Don Barksdale (11).
Eight of the players honored were members of NCAA championship teams, and seven of the players were coached by Wooden. Although Hazzard's No. 42 was retired, he allowed Kevin Love (2007–2008) to wear it. Johnson's retired No. 54 was worn by his sons, Kris (1994–1998) and Josiah (2001–2005).
In addition, UCLA announced on November 22, 2014 that the number 42 would be retired across all university sports in honor of Jackie Robinson, a four-sport star at UCLA who went on to a Hall of Fame career in Major League Baseball and broke that sport's 20th-century color line. While Robinson wore several different numbers while at the school from 1939 to 1941, the number 42 was chosen because it was the number he wore during his Brooklyn Dodgers career. The all-sports retirement had no effect on men's basketball since that number had already been retired for Hazzard; however, Robinson's 42 will be prominently displayed within all UCLA athletic venues, including Pauley Pavilion.