The University of Iowa will retire Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jersey, the school announced on Wednesday.
The school’s athletic director Beth Goetz also announced the news during the team’s end-of-the-season celebration to a rousing ovation from the fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“We always knew your jersey would be hanging in the rafters,” Goetz said. “It is a privilege for me to now make that official. You will be the last to wear No. 22.”
Clark, the all-time leading scorer in NCAA men’s and women’s Division I basketball history, called the honor “super incredible.”
“Something I am very thankful for and, obviously, I have had some incredible teammates over the course of my four years here,” Clark, who is now bound for the WNBA, said.
“There’s been a lot of really good 22’s to come before me and play for this program. … That number holds a lot of weight. Far beyond my name and I guess I am just really grateful and it’ll be a special day when it happens.”
For the second year in a row, Iowa and Clark came up short in the national championship game, this time losing to South Carolina.
“I look up in the rafters and I see that Final Four banner from last year,” Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder said.
“And I am going to look forward to seeing No. 22 hang up there as well. But I am also looking forward to seeing another Final Four banner up there that says ‘Cleveland’ on it – national runner-up,” she added.
The 22-year-old will become the third Hawkeyes women’s basketball player to have her jersey retired, after Michelle Edwards (No. 30, 1985-1988) and Megan Gustafson (No. 10, 2015-2019).