Virginia Tech considers retiring No. 32 to honor victims

Cedric Humes, former Hokie No. 32, says he would be OK with retiring the number. (The Virginian-Pilot file photo)

By Mark Berman
The Roanoke Times

On April 20, when people around the nation wore orange or maroon in support of Virginia Tech, the mother of former Tech running back Cedric Humes put on his old jersey.

No. 32.

When people saw Sheria Humes that day, they commented to her about the new significance of that number.

It certainly has taken on added meaning. Some members of the Tech men’s and women’s track teams, for example, wrote “32” on their arms, legs or hands at the ACC championships and Penn Relays to honor the 32 people who were killed by Seung-Hui Cho on April 16.

Now the university is mulling over what to do with No.32.

The week of the shootings, a soldier stationed in Iraq e-mailed athletic director Jim Weaver with the suggestion that No. 32 be retired on all of the school’s teams. At least a dozen other people later e-mailed Weaver with the same request.

“The jersey retirement … will not be the athletic department’s decision but rather something coming out of central administration,” Weaver said.

If No. 32 is retired, it could be displayed where other Tech teams show their retired numbers, such as from the top of Lane Stadium, from the Cassell Coliseum rafters or on the outfield fence at English Field.

“That’s a nice tribute for the people who died,” Tech student Alexandra Morris said.

Another possibility, said Weaver, is to instead deem 32 a special number that would only be given out to certain athletes considered worthy of the honor.

Weaver likened it to what the Syracuse football program used to do with No. 44. After the 1960s, Syracuse assigned No. 44 to only five select players to preserve the legacy of the number once worn at the school by running backs Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. Syracuse retired the number in 2005.

Weaver presented both ideas to Tech vice president for alumni relations Thomas Tillar, who is leading a committee dealing with the potential construction of a university memorial.

But Tillar said his committee will concentrate only on the possible memorial and won’t become involved with the No. 32 issue. Tillar said Tech president Charles Steger or a committee on commemorative tributes might instead decide the No. 32 matter.

Weaver isn’t sure whether Tech officials would want to retire No. 32 because that wouldn’t recognize the students who were injured in the shootings.

Humes, who played for the Hokies from 2002-05, likes the idea of retiring No. 32.

“I would definitely be OK with it because there’s a lot more than just athletics in life,” said Humes, who is playing this spring for the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europa. “It could be dedicated to those victims and their families.”

Jeff Smith, president of the Radford Hokie Club, said he doesn’t think the number should be retired.

“It’s not what you retire numbers for,” he said. “The university’s going to go through other ways to memorialize those individuals. It was a whole university-wide event. … There’s going to be more fitting memorials to come from that … rather than retiring a number.”

Displaying No. 32 would be a constant reminder of an awful day, but that’s OK with Tech student Kelly Joyce.

“Pretty much this entire campus is going to be a constant reminder. It’s not necessarily a bad thing,” she said. “It’s nice to see things being remembered.”

“If they did do it, it would be very nice,” student Pierson Booher said. “If they didn’t retire it, one thing I could really see happening is it could be forgotten. … If you were to retire it, it would almost be eternal. I’m not saying it would be forgotten in all of our minds, but it would be nice to have that reminder.”

Rob Cave and two other Tech graduates launched a Web site, retire32.com, last week. It features a petition supporting the idea. They started a Facebook campaign the day after the shootings.

“Our goal is to get the school to retire the number and have all the families … at the first football game (on Sept. 1) and do it there,” said Cave, of Arlington. “That number needs to hang … so that everyone knows that they are with us at every game from this point on.”

Tech has retired numbers before, such as the No. 78 of football great Bruce Smith, the No. 30 of basketball star Dell Curry and the No. 1 of former baseball coach Chuck Hartman. Tech has also retired jerseys, in which the number is displayed in honor of a former star but is still given out.

Carlos Dixon, who wore No.32 for the Tech men’s basketball team, said he doesn’t think the shootings should be the reason Tech retires the number.

“I would rather someone have the number retired due to athletic reasons,” said Dixon, who has played pro basketball in China the past two years.

Dixon instead likes the idea of giving the number out to recognize special athletes, or perhaps have Tech athletes wear a 32 patch on their uniforms.

The players on Tech’s spring sports teams have been wearing black patches that say “VT remembers” and the date of the shootings. Weaver said that for the 2007-08 school year, Tech athletes will wear patches with whatever logo the university designs to remember the victims.

John Rupe, the president of the Pulaski County Hokie Club, would not only like to see 32 retired but would also like Tech to have a 32-second moment of silence before all home games. Tech had 32 seconds of silence before games the weekend after the shootings; it has been holding shorter moments of silence since.