The first recorded use of numbers on jerseys belongs to our friends from New Zealand and Australia. The first formal use was during the late 1890s during rugby matches in those two countries on the other side of the world.
Author Timothy P. Brown on his Fields of Friendly Strife website claims that American Football may have performed the numeral adornment as first in North America. Brown’s September 2021 article claims that Amos Alonzo Stagg thought about putting numbers on his University of Chicago players around 1900 but rescinded the idea when he worried that it would make the scouting of his players by opponents much easier. A Thanksgiving Day collegiate game in 1905 though between Iowa State and Drake did have unique numbers on the participants. The article says that the numbers were painted on pieces of canvas that had been sewn on the jersey back of each player in the game. 50 numbered shirts were provided with Drake using the first 25 and then Iowa State using the remaining number of 26 through 50.
The digits were displayed prominently on player jerseys to identify them from other players, spectators, game scorers and officials. In the early days of its use, there was order in its implementation. In soccer or Association Football, the players were made to wear the numbers 1 to 11, with the goalie wearing number 1 and so on. In baseball, the number corresponded to the order of the batting position. In American football it was often the case of the best player having the lowest number, so wearing jersey number one on the gridiron was a prestigious honor indeed in that era.
Today, however, the players are oftentimes are allowed to choose their own number, as long as the number has not been retired and no one else in the team uses that particular number. Most levels of American football range numbers based on the player’s position, so the digits they select are a bit more limited than other sports.
Here is a basic list of when each major sport first used numbers on the shirts/sweaters of the players:
- The 1890s- Australian and New Zealand rugby teams
- 1905 - American college football teams of Iowa State and Drake.
- 1911 - Australian Rules Football
- 1911-12 - Hockey played in the National Hockey Association required its players to wear numbers on their sweaters for identification purposes. Right around that same time the Pacific Hockey League required numbers on the players so that they could generate added revenue by selling programs to spectators.
- 1916 - Cleveland Indians baseball team.
- 1920 - APFA/NFL used them right from the start.
